tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662308343537020902015-08-01T12:50:14.646-07:00Bikewriter.comRiding Man author Mark Gardiner provides insight into motorcycle racing, history, and industry news. A focus on road racing is to be expected from an ex-Isle of Man TT racer but Backmarker also covers everything from flat track to electric bikes.Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.comBlogger406125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-80568607355528213992015-08-01T12:46:00.000-07:002015-08-01T12:50:14.668-07:00Canepa up on assault charges? And memories of other dick moves...<div class="p1"><span class="s1">This track-monitor video is circulating on the internet. It purports to show former EBR World Superbike racer Niccolo Canepa purposely punching the brake lever of another rider, causing him to crash and nearly involving a following rider, too.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9h3LvcY2CJs" width="420"></iframe> <div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span><span class="s1">I don’t know for sure if it was Canepa, but someone does. In this day and age of hi-res video and computer enhancement, it should be possible to positively ID the machine and rider’s leathers and helmet. It happened at a track day, which baffles me a little bit anyway; I mean really, what does a rider of that caliber get out of riding around with club racers and calamari, anyway?</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">In any case, Canepa had to sign in, his bike had to have been tech’d; there should be a pretty much ironclad chain of evidence. Apparently, he’ll face assault charges (and if there’s any justice, he’ll be convicted.)</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">If that happens—i.e., if the guy in this video is really Niccolo Canepa—assault charges should be the least of his problems. World Superbike, the FIM, and the Federazione Motociclista Italiana should hand down a fucking draconian ban. It doesn’t look like the victim of this assault was seriously injured, but he could’ve been killed, and so could following riders.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Whenever I hear of—or see—a really fast guy pull a dick move, I’m reminded of a race meeting at Loudon, back in the ‘90s when NHIS still hosted an AMA National.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Back then, I raced in the LRRS series, so in the support classes that weekend. We had one rider’s meeting for the whole group, so there were AMA Superbike stars standing around with LRRS club racers, some of whom were pretty quick and who were signed up for both the LRRS races and AMA races. After going through the usual patter about flag protocol and the special schedule for a National weekend, the Race Director asked if anyone had anything to add.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Miguel Duhamel piped up, reminding the fast local guys that the AMA Pros were racing for a national championship. Not to put too fine a point on it, he told them to stay off the track in the final 15 minutes of qualifying, so they wouldn’t balk the stars.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">After Duhamel’s suggestion had sunk in a moment, someone in the back spoke up very clearly.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">“OK, I’ll tell you what you little runt,” came the retort. “I’ll stay off the track in the last 15 minutes. But if you come past me again and try to kick me, or turn around and give me the finger, I’m going to come to your pit and beat the shit out of you.”</span></div><div class="p2"><br /><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">At that, there was an acutal smattering of applause from local fast guys, which made me think that Duhamel had made himself unpopular with more than one of ‘em.</span></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-40647848798913614432015-07-20T08:38:00.001-07:002015-07-20T08:38:34.079-07:00The small matter of life and death in motorcycle racing<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The deaths of Bernat Martinez and Daniel Rivas Fernandez, in the final (MotoAmerica) race yesterday at Laguna Seca, serve as a reminder that even on “good” tracks, motorcycle racing will never be safe.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The thing is, risk is what gives the decision to race motorcycles meaning. Although Martinez and Fernandez were, I suppose, technically professionals neither was earning a real living from racing per se. And they certainly weren’t being compensated on the level of other “professional athletes”.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, why were they taking those risks?</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><a href="http://amzn.com/0979167329" target="_blank">Riding Man</a></i> was, largely, written to answer that question. I’ve excerpted two small parts of it below. From my perspective, the first helps explain the appeal of motorcycle racing (which has little if anything to do with being an “adrenaline junkie”.) The second explores the way we rationalize risks which, by any rational measure, outweigh our sport’s tangible rewards.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That leaves the intangible rewards. If you’ve been a racer, you know what they are.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Risk is what gives motorcycle racing those rewards. No, we don’t race <i>in order</i> to take risks. But if it was completely safe, none of us would do it.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here’s my message to all the racers who <i>didn’t</i> get hurt or killed yesterday. Those guys died for you. Not willingly, of course, but their sacrifice is what gives your sport meaning and what makes the experience of racing so profoundly different than the experience most other sports.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On Saturday night, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JesusOnToastPlay?fref=ts" target="_blank">I opened a play</a> (a first for me; and yes, I was as nervous in the audience as I ever was on a grid.) But it wasn’t as profound an experience as waiting for that flag to drop, because no one’s life was on the line. In spite of my play’s title, I’m an antitheist. So I’ll never suggest anything as puerile as praying for Bernat and Daniel, and please unfriend me if I ever repeat that trite, “Godspeed”.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But you should hold them in your thoughts, because they and so many others who went before them will make your next race a profound experience. Their deaths will impart that much more meaning to the feelings you have when you pull off the track after next taking the checkered flag.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>ON RISK Pt. 1</b></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hemingway is famously quoted (or, perhaps, misquoted?) as having said, “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” This is ironic, because as a motorcycle racer, I’ve always been jealous of mountain climbers, in the sense that they don’t seem to face the same resistance from society when it comes to justifying or explaining their obsession. If you grow up in Switzerland and then live in the Canadian Rockies like I did, you meet lots of climbers. I’ve known about half a dozen people who’ve summited Everest, and I’ve always been struck by the fact that we seem understand each other well. We both appreciate a kind of self-knowledge that comes from our particular risk sports.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are equally dangerous–even more dangerous–pursuits. You could choose to be a rodeo bullrider or base jumper. But the danger in those sports comes from the decision to participate. It’s something you confront once per event, when you lower yourself down from that eight-foot fence and wrap that rope around your hand. You nod, and after that your survival is up to the bull. For all the control you have over it, you may as well be playing Russian roulette. In fact most winning rides are, if anything, less dangerous than losing ones. But climbers and motorcycle racers need to make a constant series of decisions–we ask ourselves, “Where’s the edge?” and constantly need to confront the fact that after removing every possible variable we’re going to be left with this reality: the best performance is inherently the most dangerous one. This is the source of a unique kind of self-knowledge and an easy mutual respect between us.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And yet, motorcycle racers get far less credit for this in society at large. No one seriously suggests that climbing should be outlawed. I blame this discrepancy on George Mallory. He’d attempted to climb Everest in 1922, and was on a lecture tour of America raising money for a second attempt. At every stop, he got the same stupid question from reporters, “Why do you want to climb the world’s highest mountain, anyway?” Finally, in exasperation, he snapped “Because it’s there!”&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For whatever reason, the answer resonated with the non-climbing public. Taken out of context, the phrase had its own Zen.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mallory did assemble the sponsorship he needed for a second attempt, in 1924. Whether or not he made it to the summit is one of climbing’s enduring mysteries. He never came back down and was never seen alive again. Considering the equipment of the day (for perspective, the TT course record was around 55 miles per hour at the time) his climb was one of the greatest achievements ever in mountaineering. Mallory’s record stood for 30 years until Sir Edmund Hillary became the first man ever to summit Everest for sure.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>ON RISK Pt. 2</b></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One of the places that’s been bugging me–frankly, scaring me–on the course is Barregarrow crossroads. Two gnarly, blind, left-hand kinks, connected by a steep bumpy downhill. But one day as I’m riding along on my bicycle, I come to the farm just before the crossroads. There’s a huge tree on the left here, and I’m making a mental note that I need to be way over to the right, in position for the first kink, by the time I get to this point. As I’m pedaling beneath the tree, I hear a cacophony overhead. Hundreds of crows are living up in the branches. In fact, the road is plastered with their shit, which is another reason to be over to the right.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But crows. Suddenly, I’ve lost my fear of Barregarrow.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All this goes back quite a few years. Once, I signed up for a California Superbike School session on a Honda RS125 GP bike. The school took place at Willow Springs, on the Streets of Willow practice course. As usual, I didn’t know anyone there. My lupus was acting up. Every joint really hurt, and the prospect of folding myself onto one of those tiny, tiny bikes was not that appealing. As a Canadian in the ’States, I had no health insurance. All in all, as I waited to get started, I figured I’d put myself in a very good position to make a fool of myself at best, break my body and my bank account at worst.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was distracted from these glum thoughts by a flock of ravens about a hundred yards down the pit wall. They were fighting over treasure: a bag of old french fries. Suddenly, for no reason, I had a sense that these birds were good luck for me and that as long as they were there, I was going to be all right. This belief sprang fully formed into my head. Like other people, the things I believe most fervently are based in utter nonsense.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ever since then big, noisy black birds are good luck for me. I’ve always felt that–especially on the morning of races–if I see one it’s a guarantee I won’t be hurt. And it’s always been true.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Long after that day at Willow, in the course of my advertising career, I had to write some public service TV spots on the subject of gambling addiction. I went to a few Gambler’s Anonymous-type meetings where I learned two things. One was that gambling addicts were pathetic losers. The other was that this irrational belief that something is lucky for you has a name. Psychologists call it “magic thinking” and it is one of the hallmarks of risk addiction.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>In fairness, the big black birds have always worked for me. They’ve protected me on days I’ve seen ’em, and indeed, I’ve had some hairy crashes on mornings when I’ve not seen them. If you set out to debunk my talisman, you’d say, “The birds calm you, and you ride better relaxed. You’re tense when you’re aware you haven’t seen one, and you ride shitty tense.” That may be true. The scientist in me is a little subtler. I think that the birds are common, after all, and there’s probably almost always one to see. I think that when I’m in a state of relaxed awareness, alert to my environment, I can count on seeing one. That’s the state in which I ride well. When I internalize, when I’m looking in and not out, I don’t see them. That’s a state in which I ride poorly.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Whatever the case, after the TT fortnight was over, I drove one of my visitors to the airport, and on the way home crossed the Fairy Bridge. Somehow, lost in thought, I failed to say hello, though I reassured myself that I’d said it on the trip to the airport and according to the letter of the legend, it is the first crossing of each day that is critical. Nonetheless, most Manx say hello on every crossing, and that had been my habit too.</i></span></div><br /><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-75495547627684958782015-06-29T15:32:00.003-07:002015-06-29T15:33:01.156-07:00Gaming the rules is part of the gameI see that the Grand Prix Commission—that's actually French for "big pricks"—have decided that Ducati will lose its rules "concessions" a year earlier than previously thought. I guess Honda and Yamaha got tired of Ducati riders qualifying and finishing ahead of their factory bikes.<br /><br />The reason this bugs me is, gaming the rules has always been a part of the game in motorsport. Looking at the rulebook and figuring out how to get an advantage is one of the central skills in racing. Ducati did that better than Honda and Yamaha; they should be rewarded for it, not punished for it.<br /><br />Bad form, MotoGP.Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-10754613992771830772015-06-11T16:38:00.003-07:002015-06-11T16:38:52.276-07:00Best-laid schemesIt's hard to decide which recent PR faux pas was worst, between Harley-Davidson's full court press at the X-Games (in which race leader Jared Mees' Harley expired on the last lap) or Honda's high-profile unveiling of the RC213V-S.<br /><br />The reaction to the Honda's specs has been one of pretty much across the board disappointment, in the sense that they claim an underwhelming (by modern standards) 101 hp at an overwhelming price that's near enough $200k.<br /><br />Seriously? And the curb weight is more than a stock CBR600.<br /><br />Ironically, both those PR hiccups redounded to the benefit of Kawasaki. Bryan Smith inherited the X-Games gold medal, and then about the time the embargo was coming off the Honda story, Kawasaki scooped 'em when James Hillier hit a verified 206 miles per hour on public roads, riding the H2R on an Isle of Man parade lap.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Gang aft agl</span></span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">ey</span></span></blockquote>I put the question to Facebook: If you could have one bike only, and had a $5k budget to buy it, what would it be? My purpose is mainly short trips in town and I need reasonable weather protection and cargo capacity. Bonus points for long-distance and/or sport-touring capability, bonus points for bad road capability.<br /><br />Of course, the KLR and V-Strom supporters soon commented in numbers, and I suppose there's a good chance that I'll go that route. I'm not really in the market yet; I have to sell at least one more bike to fill up the cash hopper.<br /><br />It's an interesting point to ponder, and I've imagined myself on everything from a Burgman to a mid-'90s VFR750, to any number of BMWs. My wildcard entries range from a Piaggio 3-wheeler (which do, surprisingly, show up on the KC Craiglist every now and then) to a first-gen Ducati Multistrada (which is a bike I love, but that never shows up on CL.)<br /><br />Anyway, I will obviously write about it when I buy a new bike. In the meantime, my Dream and the Bonneville are both in new homes. My TLR200 is on CL, as is the Vino, but I've priced the Vino pretty high just because it's so useful to me.<br /><br />Best-laid plans, redux<br /><br />David Emmett recently wrote that Honda's MotoGP effort has been in a long, slow decline masked only by Marc Marquez' rare talent (and affinity for the "real" RC213's too-aggressive throttle response.) I suppose this proves that, as of yet, the rider's wrist still counts for something; it's not all down to computers.<br /><br />But I can't help but remember the times we've been through this before. Only Stoner could ride the Ducati. Even Rossi was hopeless on it. And of course, only Wayne Rainey could make the Yamaha 500 two-stroke work in the early-to-mid '90s. After Rainey was paralyzed, a string of very talented guys were stymied by that bike.<br /><br />When it comes to developing a race bike, it seems there is such a thing as too much talent—if it masks underlying problems or at the very least, takes pressure off the engineers.<br /><br /><br />Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-1627292442163262292015-05-25T15:16:00.000-07:002015-05-25T17:38:38.878-07:00Nerd alert: Bayliss' progress at Springfield, analyzedNo reasonable person expected Troy Bayliss to make the Main at his first Grand National. Overall, I'm sure Troy, the Lloyd Bros., and Ducati are all pretty happy with what went down in Springfield, although their weekend would've been a lot better were it not for Johnny Lewis' scary crash.<br /><br />Bayliss' lap times trended down, although by some measures, all of his improvement relative to the rest of the field happened right at the beginning of the day. From Q1 on, Troy tracked along about two seconds adrift of the fastest guys.<br /><br />The most interesting statistic is that, in his 8-lap Semi, Troy finished only about 7 seconds behind Jake Cunningham—the last guy to go through to the Main Event. I calculated a "Cutoff Factor" of 102%, meaning that Troy's lap times in that critical Semi were about 2% longer than they needed to be.<br /><br />For all I know, Troy may make the Main at Sacto; it's a horsepower track that should suit the Ducati, although the Lloyd Bros. and Jake Johnson elected to race their Kawasaki there last year.<br /><br />If Troy <i>doesn't</i> make the Main, I'll be looking to see improvement in that Cutoff Factor. If he does, I'll use the same statistical analysis next week to analyze his performance vis-a-vis the front runners.<br /><br />In the meantime, if you want to waste 15 minutes of your life, you can watch a seriously boring and pedantic analysis of his lap times at Springfield. (I promise to get to the point quicker next Monday, after Sacto!)<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/128819377" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><a href="https://vimeo.com/128819377">Monday Morning Crew Chief</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user13277253">re: RevolutionaryOldIdea.com</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-37847631801817533172015-05-20T14:05:00.000-07:002015-05-21T12:22:03.650-07:00More photos from the auction at Steelville and Cuba, MO<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1q0kO82nZzE/VVzfr2otNQI/AAAAAAAAC-o/w_c0snA1l6w/s1600/P1040478.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1q0kO82nZzE/VVzfr2otNQI/AAAAAAAAC-o/w_c0snA1l6w/s320/P1040478.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manx Norton was, according to rumors, part of the "good stuff" that got burnt up in a fire at the farm.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eRbIDO9Ow0A/VVzfsY7Mf1I/AAAAAAAAC-s/GCJ_iiCu1SA/s1600/P1040479.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eRbIDO9Ow0A/VVzfsY7Mf1I/AAAAAAAAC-s/GCJ_iiCu1SA/s320/P1040479.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Somewhere, there must've been a box with all the missing fuel caps.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pNHxx6TnNy0/VVzftDcyuzI/AAAAAAAAC-8/NdHRqp4F8x8/s1600/P1040482.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pNHxx6TnNy0/VVzftDcyuzI/AAAAAAAAC-8/NdHRqp4F8x8/s320/P1040482.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of great finds, but only for those willing to buy in volume. This was one lot.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vwqjs8dnRiQ/VVzfsnFV2aI/AAAAAAAAC-0/f94qF9vJ0-8/s1600/P1040483.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vwqjs8dnRiQ/VVzfsnFV2aI/AAAAAAAAC-0/f94qF9vJ0-8/s320/P1040483.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These went for $5,000 a piece. Granted, they were in perfect shape. Not sure if they were rebuilt or NOS.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4pc7dM8kvMA/VVzftLVU39I/AAAAAAAAC-4/_9MLUc7tuUk/s1600/P1040485.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4pc7dM8kvMA/VVzftLVU39I/AAAAAAAAC-4/_9MLUc7tuUk/s320/P1040485.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even after two months' work, Wood's crew was still overwhelmed by the quantity of material, and the unique challenges of Jerry L. Lewis' hoarding disorder.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OkRYcYBgZiA/VVzftZDFBsI/AAAAAAAAC_E/hVhFPz_uRkQ/s1600/P1040486.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OkRYcYBgZiA/VVzftZDFBsI/AAAAAAAAC_E/hVhFPz_uRkQ/s320/P1040486.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wheels. Again, one lot.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y_Ot6eTMKbs/VVzfuIjvv_I/AAAAAAAAC_Y/sSbhtO28OPg/s1600/P1040489.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y_Ot6eTMKbs/VVzfuIjvv_I/AAAAAAAAC_Y/sSbhtO28OPg/s320/P1040489.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panther found in Missouri woods.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x9TxEbusLmI/VVzfvfNMjiI/AAAAAAAAC_4/8YyvYM8RDmQ/s1600/P1040490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x9TxEbusLmI/VVzfvfNMjiI/AAAAAAAAC_4/8YyvYM8RDmQ/s320/P1040490.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There were some cool bikes, but the hoarder's taste ran the gamut.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V-RsEodS3Gc/VVzfusj7JWI/AAAAAAAAC_c/uag-GLjB3J8/s1600/P1040491.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V-RsEodS3Gc/VVzfusj7JWI/AAAAAAAAC_c/uag-GLjB3J8/s320/P1040491.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wooden rims!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rFW97jX8qKs/VVzfuwakN4I/AAAAAAAAC_k/xZ6SPuk3NUM/s1600/P1040492.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rFW97jX8qKs/VVzfuwakN4I/AAAAAAAAC_k/xZ6SPuk3NUM/s320/P1040492.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wood pulled several hundred bikes and pallets of parts out of the farm, and moved them to an empty industrial building in nearby Steelville. This was the site of the first-day auction.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GZD3MFf5P7o/VVzfvGg8u9I/AAAAAAAAC_o/WE18Wechtdk/s1600/P1040493.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GZD3MFf5P7o/VVzfvGg8u9I/AAAAAAAAC_o/WE18Wechtdk/s320/P1040493.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of small bikes that I can hardly imagine were that common in these parts. My friend Jim wondered how many had come back with servicemen, from Europe. Fort Leonard Wood is right nearby.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0sZDPbassE/VVzfvkaIDeI/AAAAAAAAC_w/QVeREEkuFVM/s1600/P1040494.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0sZDPbassE/VVzfvkaIDeI/AAAAAAAAC_w/QVeREEkuFVM/s320/P1040494.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This pretty complete looking Guzzi sold for $20,000. The bidder was buying it for a friend in Switzerland. Later I heard that the friend's reaction was, "You paid how much?"</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uqEFImWF1LA/VVzfwP1uWnI/AAAAAAAADAE/gliowenE7ko/s1600/P1040500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uqEFImWF1LA/VVzfwP1uWnI/AAAAAAAADAE/gliowenE7ko/s320/P1040500.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OHC, twin-ports. Star of show. $30 grand.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-29eO6wFqRsA/VVzfvxyUgiI/AAAAAAAAC_8/cEWrDBQuvMc/s1600/P1040501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-29eO6wFqRsA/VVzfvxyUgiI/AAAAAAAAC_8/cEWrDBQuvMc/s320/P1040501.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic design gems abounded.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1D5u88MWnEw/VVzfwyZZfTI/AAAAAAAADAY/pOvtR3v3bCk/s1600/P1040503.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1D5u88MWnEw/VVzfwyZZfTI/AAAAAAAADAY/pOvtR3v3bCk/s320/P1040503.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This pair sold for over $10 grand(!!!) A few days later, one every bit as good was advertised on Craigslist here in KC for $600. Most of the machines were sold sans title, by the way.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sVeVSUTKEAc/VVzfw-qlycI/AAAAAAAADAU/1ZgkOq48j2o/s1600/P1040505.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sVeVSUTKEAc/VVzfw-qlycI/AAAAAAAADAU/1ZgkOq48j2o/s320/P1040505.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">$27,000 worth of 1915 Harley.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GZWExQ-G9yw/VVzfx_aNh_I/AAAAAAAADAo/5LBnmfDNSSg/s1600/P1040515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GZWExQ-G9yw/VVzfx_aNh_I/AAAAAAAADAo/5LBnmfDNSSg/s320/P1040515.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Treasure for some Yale restorer. This was one of the few parts sold individually. Another was a Hedstrom carb, that went for over a grand.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aieyl3--xcU/VVzfyWOasNI/AAAAAAAADA0/-k-DZw_JqqY/s1600/P1040518.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aieyl3--xcU/VVzfyWOasNI/AAAAAAAADA0/-k-DZw_JqqY/s320/P1040518.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most of the parts were sold like this, by the pallet.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uM3YT5VvFkw/VVzfx7XtA-I/AAAAAAAADAs/cmkD1jwz038/s1600/P1040523.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uM3YT5VvFkw/VVzfx7XtA-I/AAAAAAAADAs/cmkD1jwz038/s320/P1040523.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If I was writing a thesis on industrial design, my topic would be these beautiful outboard motors...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dHw1KILnb9Y/VVzfy_B58pI/AAAAAAAADA8/E7Nnjuqa9cs/s1600/P1040524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dHw1KILnb9Y/VVzfy_B58pI/AAAAAAAADA8/E7Nnjuqa9cs/s320/P1040524.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M8DOFcncgYQ/VVzfzc2hKDI/AAAAAAAADBU/fszjZJAkCWE/s1600/P1040525.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M8DOFcncgYQ/VVzfzc2hKDI/AAAAAAAADBU/fszjZJAkCWE/s320/P1040525.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bqqQJB51NPA/VVzfzHUU1TI/AAAAAAAADBA/zdKrTExZ560/s1600/P1040528.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bqqQJB51NPA/VVzfzHUU1TI/AAAAAAAADBA/zdKrTExZ560/s320/P1040528.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another single lot.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pPRybjir5NI/VVzfzjywRGI/AAAAAAAADBI/yZkSkz2XEgM/s1600/P1040530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pPRybjir5NI/VVzfzjywRGI/AAAAAAAADBI/yZkSkz2XEgM/s320/P1040530.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most of the bikes were in pretty rough shape, but a few crate motors looked ready for gas and oil.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UPAjOoa8sVA/VVzfzhB6IsI/AAAAAAAADBM/6HRCQ7j8K58/s1600/P1040535.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UPAjOoa8sVA/VVzfzhB6IsI/AAAAAAAADBM/6HRCQ7j8K58/s320/P1040535.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another star of the show. I think this one went for about $30 grand.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lb1JxkvHdOM/VVzf0azIBjI/AAAAAAAADBg/sufQgNoPr8Q/s1600/P1040536.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lb1JxkvHdOM/VVzf0azIBjI/AAAAAAAADBg/sufQgNoPr8Q/s320/P1040536.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another bit of sweet logo design.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1rdK_hj05Ck/VVzf1E-CyuI/AAAAAAAADBw/1-I6YGV-sIw/s1600/P1040548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1rdK_hj05Ck/VVzf1E-CyuI/AAAAAAAADBw/1-I6YGV-sIw/s320/P1040548.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sold by Ed "Iron Man" Kretz!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3L_SGlXFiOA/VVzf00H02SI/AAAAAAAADBs/0GOzIwg-eYQ/s1600/P1040550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3L_SGlXFiOA/VVzf00H02SI/AAAAAAAADBs/0GOzIwg-eYQ/s320/P1040550.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My friend Jim Van Eman scored this Mornini. "I have two Morinis now," he told me. "Does that make me a moroni?"</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jpyNQ7BBUGw/VVzf14DgwWI/AAAAAAAADB8/l9MYWc_8_o0/s1600/P1040553.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jpyNQ7BBUGw/VVzf14DgwWI/AAAAAAAADB8/l9MYWc_8_o0/s320/P1040553.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patina? Yes. Motor? Sadly no.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R03mN7I2qrc/VVzf1lytM1I/AAAAAAAADB4/wYRD4cwqhW8/s1600/P1040555.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R03mN7I2qrc/VVzf1lytM1I/AAAAAAAADB4/wYRD4cwqhW8/s320/P1040555.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Better days seen...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vsSOOtEIFyI/VVzf2P9SfwI/AAAAAAAADCA/bECIUdyAWtI/s1600/P1040560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vsSOOtEIFyI/VVzf2P9SfwI/AAAAAAAADCA/bECIUdyAWtI/s320/P1040560.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do you know how fast you were going?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lTV6yyzjIdA/VVzf2k26bDI/AAAAAAAADCY/g60O_Tz5uvw/s1600/P1040561.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lTV6yyzjIdA/VVzf2k26bDI/AAAAAAAADCY/g60O_Tz5uvw/s320/P1040561.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lights.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z06VCLOekn0/VVzf3HskMFI/AAAAAAAADCc/ON2niQp7xhQ/s1600/P1040563.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z06VCLOekn0/VVzf3HskMFI/AAAAAAAADCc/ON2niQp7xhQ/s320/P1040563.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hip, daddy-o.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SjPZcnae64M/VVzf2m3H8gI/AAAAAAAADCU/hhf7D-FoGRU/s1600/P1040566.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SjPZcnae64M/VVzf2m3H8gI/AAAAAAAADCU/hhf7D-FoGRU/s320/P1040566.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim's genius idea came too late; they should've had a swap meet right after the auction, so the people who bought whole pallets of stuff could swap amongst themselves to get what they really wanted...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CH_DAJovJeQ/VVzf3UCpIrI/AAAAAAAADCg/dBLRn-q6IYw/s1600/P1040570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CH_DAJovJeQ/VVzf3UCpIrI/AAAAAAAADCg/dBLRn-q6IYw/s320/P1040570.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tanks for the memories.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iy_dNkvdlEo/VVzf4l1nQ1I/AAAAAAAADDA/Vx-F4PvgsAA/s1600/P1040573.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iy_dNkvdlEo/VVzf4l1nQ1I/AAAAAAAADDA/Vx-F4PvgsAA/s320/P1040573.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We were evidently not supposed to be here, but...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CBXjFfywqbo/VVzf5K8CCoI/AAAAAAAADDI/9pzyg1tt0EE/s1600/P1040574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CBXjFfywqbo/VVzf5K8CCoI/AAAAAAAADDI/9pzyg1tt0EE/s320/P1040574.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">…we ignored the signs to explore the farm, too.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WcVz_W8hkuE/VVzf43DvPfI/AAAAAAAADDE/kpZc_-0puhI/s1600/P1040577.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WcVz_W8hkuE/VVzf43DvPfI/AAAAAAAADDE/kpZc_-0puhI/s320/P1040577.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burnt up in the fire?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-URBC01IsPnI/VVzf55m63vI/AAAAAAAADDY/8sSCVao_oEU/s1600/P1040579.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-URBC01IsPnI/VVzf55m63vI/AAAAAAAADDY/8sSCVao_oEU/s320/P1040579.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's hard to know exactly how they decided what to leave on the farm for the second day's auction.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6FI8kS4gC4o/VVzf6O4GbOI/AAAAAAAADDc/iSalTHuu2lE/s1600/P1040581.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6FI8kS4gC4o/VVzf6O4GbOI/AAAAAAAADDc/iSalTHuu2lE/s320/P1040581.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There were a few bikes out there which had burnt or melted alloy bits, but the steel'd survived. (Sort of.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wxxf3nbG5zc/VVzf7UmpAvI/AAAAAAAADD8/wBsphhzf3eo/s1600/P1040582.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wxxf3nbG5zc/VVzf7UmpAvI/AAAAAAAADD8/wBsphhzf3eo/s320/P1040582.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Subaru Ladybug. Powered by 600cc two-stroke motor, IIRC.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nEFWtq3v9yo/VVzf6eNiWZI/AAAAAAAADDg/JdkBmaMvMhA/s1600/P1040587.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nEFWtq3v9yo/VVzf6eNiWZI/AAAAAAAADDg/JdkBmaMvMhA/s320/P1040587.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice lettering from a time, happily, before vinyl.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EzTRW9hCyHA/VVzf7JaSSPI/AAAAAAAADD0/WebTF9Y7uJE/s1600/P1040588.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EzTRW9hCyHA/VVzf7JaSSPI/AAAAAAAADD0/WebTF9Y7uJE/s320/P1040588.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Advantage of metal buildings: They don't burn.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yX9kZI7nsv0/VVzf7SayWYI/AAAAAAAADD4/yabskniy15M/s1600/P1040590.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yX9kZI7nsv0/VVzf7SayWYI/AAAAAAAADD4/yabskniy15M/s320/P1040590.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lewis accumulated quite a few bicycles, as well.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N4DRPTvpWPQ/VVzf7zNhWbI/AAAAAAAADEE/NUxvJ_4M-gI/s1600/P1040591.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N4DRPTvpWPQ/VVzf7zNhWbI/AAAAAAAADEE/NUxvJ_4M-gI/s320/P1040591.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'80s Yamaha, ISO motor.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6PQwOoNtY0Q/VVzf8TMk2gI/AAAAAAAADEQ/dVU0pDrbdDM/s1600/P1040593.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6PQwOoNtY0Q/VVzf8TMk2gI/AAAAAAAADEQ/dVU0pDrbdDM/s320/P1040593.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bottom, ISO top.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7TVEcHGtAUc/VVzf9C_iDiI/AAAAAAAADEc/qPo_w-7wjh8/s1600/P1040595.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7TVEcHGtAUc/VVzf9C_iDiI/AAAAAAAADEc/qPo_w-7wjh8/s320/P1040595.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think Lewis had some kind of mobile home that burnt up. I'm not sure if this is where he lived afterwards...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9hqYiRq7wwc/VVzf9Biiw6I/AAAAAAAADEk/HopHDQVF9Q4/s1600/P1040597.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9hqYiRq7wwc/VVzf9Biiw6I/AAAAAAAADEk/HopHDQVF9Q4/s320/P1040597.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NSU Lux: The only two-stroke they ever made.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ORIfUmljscs/VVzf9BdibEI/AAAAAAAADEg/M_HKoSO7dSE/s1600/P1040600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ORIfUmljscs/VVzf9BdibEI/AAAAAAAADEg/M_HKoSO7dSE/s320/P1040600.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-stGp3K-U9cE/VVzf9ksnESI/AAAAAAAADE0/SjODVjJo9VE/s1600/P1040603.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-stGp3K-U9cE/VVzf9ksnESI/AAAAAAAADE0/SjODVjJo9VE/s320/P1040603.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">500 bidders showed up.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XrxrRKgbhn4/VVzf99cGTUI/AAAAAAAADEo/3YX5Q0UNxYw/s1600/P1040604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XrxrRKgbhn4/VVzf99cGTUI/AAAAAAAADEo/3YX5Q0UNxYw/s320/P1040604.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There was a box of about a dozen of these, which have to be treasure for the right hunter.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2x3dz1vY6jk/VVzf-r67voI/AAAAAAAADE8/zqpZ70UsMh4/s1600/P1040610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2x3dz1vY6jk/VVzf-r67voI/AAAAAAAADE8/zqpZ70UsMh4/s320/P1040610.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even Jerry Wood seemed a little surprised by the bids on some items.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p0a6AAZTP9o/VVzf-aSoW8I/AAAAAAAADE4/tIUxmZkhB98/s1600/P1040611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p0a6AAZTP9o/VVzf-aSoW8I/AAAAAAAADE4/tIUxmZkhB98/s320/P1040611.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Southeastern MO: Rat-tail heaven.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J9NnbYfnD5Y/VVzf_dwZTYI/AAAAAAAADFI/ULGYMSCQfn0/s1600/P1040613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J9NnbYfnD5Y/VVzf_dwZTYI/AAAAAAAADFI/ULGYMSCQfn0/s320/P1040613.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"He was a loner." This guy was one of Jerry L. Lewis' few friends.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lkjyq-rIrHQ/VVzf_5J41XI/AAAAAAAADFM/Xy61m_WKpbU/s1600/P1040615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lkjyq-rIrHQ/VVzf_5J41XI/AAAAAAAADFM/Xy61m_WKpbU/s320/P1040615.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manx Nortons were hot bikes.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onEcGY8JnCw/VVzgAcq6OnI/AAAAAAAADFY/ALrKGODA38c/s1600/P1040621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onEcGY8JnCw/VVzgAcq6OnI/AAAAAAAADFY/ALrKGODA38c/s320/P1040621.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When Brownie prepared to unload the Adler from the trailer back in Lawrence, KS, he noticed that the motor had turned 90° in the frame; it had not been bolted in, it was just sitting on the lower frame rails the whole time!</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-76865433333791561072015-05-20T10:41:00.002-07:002015-05-20T10:41:57.148-07:00Waco, and the inevitable echo of Hollister, 1947<div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>The big biker shootout in Waco has little to do with the sport of motorcycling, but it is bound to trigger renewed interest in the first 'motorcycle riot'—which happened in Hollister, CA in 1947.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 21.6px;"><b><span style="font-family: Palatino; letter-spacing: 0px;">The bikers who gathered at Hollister were, at least nominally, there to attend the races. Back then,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">there was considerable overlap between the utilitarian, sporting and recreational uses of motorcycles with what we'd now call 'gangs'.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"><b>There were no deaths or even serious injuries at Hollister, but then, there were fewer guns amongst the riders, and a much more subdued police presence.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"><b>My prediction is that when the dust settles in Waco, those events will have one thing in common with Hollister, and that is that no serious criminal charges will stand. It may well emerge that most or all of the people killed in Waco were shot by police, not bikers. And in&nbsp;any case, under Texas law it's entirely possible that any biker shooting will be deemed self-defense, which is defined pretty broadly down there.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"><b>In any case, I thought I should resurrect two chapters from my book, <a href="http://amzn.com/0979167361" target="_blank">"On Motorcycles: The Best of Backmarker"</a> in which I tell the truth about Hollister...</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; text-align: center; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; text-align: center; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><u>The real ‘Wild Ones’:&nbsp;</u></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 18px; text-align: center; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><u>the true story of the 1947 Hollister Motorcycle Riot</u></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>On July 4, 1947, 4,000 ‘straight-pipers’ rode into Hollister. Their plan was to spend the long weekend partying and watching the races, but the partying got a little out of control. Even the local police admitted that the bikers "did more harm to themselves than they did to the town" but the press blew the story out of proportion. When the events were dramatized by Hollywood in ‘The Wild One’, America’s image of motorcycling changed forever.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>These interviews were conducted in late 1998, when I realized that the witnesses who’d been old enough to understand what they’d seen that weekend were dying of old age. I can’t remember who I reached first, but every time I found a witness, I asked them who else was still around. Over a period of a few weeks, I found and interviewed nine eyewitnesses to the events which became known as the Hollister ‘motorcycle riot’.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Excerpts of these interviews were first published in Classic Bike, in 1999.&nbsp;</i></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bemXeEDtsMk/VVzEmyytaWI/AAAAAAAAC34/CT8-Umlztx0/s1600/LifeMagazine.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bemXeEDtsMk/VVzEmyytaWI/AAAAAAAAC34/CT8-Umlztx0/s320/LifeMagazine.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See that guy standing in the background? I interviewed him.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At the end of World War II, the central California town of Hollister had a population of about 4,500. The gently rolling farmland surrounding the community was well-suited to motorcycle riding; there were facilities for scrambles, hillclimbs, and dirt-track racing at Bolado Park (about 10 miles away) and at Memorial Park, on the outskirts of town.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Through the 1930s, Hollister had been the site of popular races sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association, and promoted by the Salinas Scramblers [correction ‘Ramblers’—MG]. Spectators rode in on A.M.A.-organized ‘Gypsy Tours’, and as attendances grew, the Memorial Day races became as important to Hollister as the livestock fair or the rodeo.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Racing was postponed after America’s belated entrance into the war. When it was organized again for 1947, local merchants welcomed a major source of revenue back to the Hollister economy.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When peace broke out, many American servicemen were demobilized in California, and settled there. As soldiers, they had earned regular pay, but found little to spend it on. In sunny California, with extra money on hand, they did the same thing any Classic Bike reader would do. Then, when they were spent, they bought motorcycles with the dough left over.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The veterans formed hundreds of small motorcycle clubs with names like the ‘Jackrabbits’, ‘13 Rebels’, and ‘Yellow Jackets’. Members wore club sweaters; rode, drank and partied together; and organized informal motorcycle ‘field meets’. There was no sense of territoriality, or inter-club rivalry.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The A.M.A. realized that the war had exposed many Americans to motorcycles; veterans came back with experiences of Harley Davidson’s WA45. Back home, shortages of metals and fuels had encouraged people to ride instead of drive. Eager to keep these new riders, the A.M.A. sanctioned competitions and organized Gypsy Tours with renewed enthusiasm.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The army, however, is not a particularly good place to acquire social graces. The new motorcyclists drank harder, and were more rambunctious than the riders who had come to Hollister before the war.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Beginning Friday morning, thousands of motorcyclists poured into town. They came down from San Francisco, up from L.A. and San Diego, and from as far away as Florida and Connecticut. By evening, San Benito Street was choked with motorcycles. Eager to prevent the locals from straying into the crowd, the seven-man Hollister Police Department set up road blocks at either end of the main street.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yi-CUPNnmIs/VVzE18VrLaI/AAAAAAAAC4A/aW66ZefxPeE/s1600/police.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yi-CUPNnmIs/VVzE18VrLaI/AAAAAAAAC4A/aW66ZefxPeE/s320/police.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At first, the 21(!) bars and taverns in Hollister welcomed the bikers with open arms. It was a good joke when motorcycles were ridden right into several taverns. But the bar owners quickly realized that the crowd required no extra encouragement. Taking the advice of the police, bartenders agreed to close two hours earlier than normal. A halfhearted attempt was made to stop serving beer, on the theory that the bikers probably couldn’t afford hard liquor.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">From late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning, the overwhelmed Hollister police (and many bemused residents) watched the ‘straight pipers’ stage drunken drags; wheelie and burnout displays; and impromptu relay races right on the main street. Most of them ignored the sanctioned races going on at Memorial Park.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In total, 50-60 bikers were treated for injuries at the local hospital. About the same number were arrested. They were charged with misdemeanors: public drunkeness, disorderly conduct, and reckless driving. Most were held for only a few hours. No one was killed or raped; there was no destruction of property, no arson, or looting; no locals suffered any harm at all.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On Sunday, 40 California Highway Patrol officers arrived with a show of force and threats of tear gas. The bikers scattered, and returned to their jobs.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The San Francisco Chronicle ran breathless accounts of Hollister’s wild weekend. While they didn’t technically lie, the stories carried sensational headlines like "Havoc in Hollister", and "Riots... Cyclists Take Over Town". The A.M.A.’s public-relations nightmare got even worse two weeks later when <i>Life</i> ran a full page photo of a beefy drunkard, swaying atop a Harley, with a beer in each hand.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As time goes by, it becomes harder to separate the Hollister myths from reality. It couldn’t have been too bad, because the town agreed to allow the A.M.A. and the Salinas Scramblers to promote motorcycle races again just five months later. Local bartenders welcomed the bikers (and their wallets) once more.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The community was the calm at the eye of a national storm. Hollister, which had actually experienced the ‘riot’, was ready to have the bikers back; meanwhile towns across the U.S. which had only read the press coverage, cancelled race meetings. Police departments also fostered the notion that roving bands of ruthless motorcycle hoodlums might descend on their towns at any moment. This worked especially well at budget time.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When Hollywood dramatized the Hollister weekend in the 1954 film The Wild One, any hope of salvaging motorcycling’s image was lost. At best, it showed bikers as drunken misfits; at worst, sociopaths. The movie’s only redeeming scene comes when a ride on Brando’s Triumph weakens the resolve of a beautiful, but chaste, young woman. If only that were true.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ironically, the sensational media coverage of Hollister helped to spawn truly criminal ‘outlaw’ bike gangs. Once the public fear of motorcyclists reached a fever pitch, bikes held irresistable appeal for genuine sociopaths. A few predators formed clubs, and were egged on by wildly exagerated media portrayals of biker crime. By the 1960s, clubs like the Hell’s Angels made Marlon Brando look like, well, Marlon Brando. The A.M.A. has been fighting a public relations rearguard action ever since.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NwtcTURHgzY/VVzFhFlvWhI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/RDTjQnMDU4Y/s1600/BM20080710_Mark_by_AW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NwtcTURHgzY/VVzFhFlvWhI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/RDTjQnMDU4Y/s320/BM20080710_Mark_by_AW.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me on a rented Harley, channeling my inner Lee Marvin. (Brando rode a Triumph.)</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-align: center; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Eyewitnesses</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bertis ‘Bert’ Lanning was 37 years old when the ‘47 Gypsy tour rode into Hollister. As a mechanic in a local garage, he had direct contact with many of the bikers involved.</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"I worked in Hollister, at Bernie Sevenman’s Tire Shop, right on the main street. I had motorcycles myself, a Harley ‘45, and a Triumph. I’m 88 now and my eyes aren’t good enough to ride anymore, but I’ve still got a bike in my garage!</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>There was a mess of ‘em. Back then, beer always came in bottles, and there were quite few of them broken in the streets, so the bikers were getting flat tires. They’d bring them into the shop, either to get them fixed, or they’d want to fix them themselves. Eventually it got so crowded in and around the shop that guys were fixing tires out in the street, running in and out to borrow tools. Maybe a couple of tools went missing. Anyway, my boss got nervous and told me to close up the shop. I thought that was great, because I wanted to get out there myself.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Main Street was packed, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the papers said. There was a bunch of guys up on the second floor of the hotel, throwing water balloons. I didn’t see any fighting or anything like that. I enjoyed it. Some people just don’t like motorcycles, I guess."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bob Yant owned an appliance store on Hollister’s main street. Back then, appliances were built to last, and so was Bob: He still works at the store every day.</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"In 1947, I had just bought into my Dad’s electrical contracting and appliance business. We had a store right on San Benito (street). There were motorcyclists everywhere; they were sleeping in the orchards.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Our store was open that Saturday. Guys were riding up and down Main Street, doing wheelies. The street was full of bikes, and the sidewalks were crowded with local people that had come down to look. Actually, it was bad for my business; my customers couldn’t get to the store. It was so slow that I left early, and let my employee lock up.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>On Sunday, I went to the hospital, to visit a friend. There were a bunch of guys injured, on gurneys in the hallway, but I think they were mostly racers. There must’ve been about 15 of them, which was quite a sight in such a small hospital.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>There was no looting or anything; I was never afraid during the weekend. You know we had a few little hassles even when the motorcyclists weren’t in town. I think some guy rode a bike into ‘Walt’s Club’ (a bar) or something, and somebody panicked. The Highway Patrol came en masse and cleared everybody out.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The day after everyone had left, near my store, there were two guys taking a photograph. They brought a bunch of empty beer bottles out of a bar, and put them all round a motorcycle, and put a guy on it. I’m sure that’s how it was taken, because they wanted to get high up to take the shot, and they borrowed a ladder from me. That photo appeared on the cover of Life magazine. (Author’s note: I do not have any evidence that Life ever ran the Hollister story on the cover)</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Not long after that, they turned the little racetrack into a ballpark."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Catherine Dabo and her husband owned the best hotel in Hollister. When bikers were being demonized in the media, she always defended them.</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"My husband and I owned the hotel, which also had a restaurant and bar. It was the first big rally after the war. Our bar was forty feet long, and a biker rode in the door of the bar, all along the bar, and through the doors into the hotel lobby!</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>We were totally booked. Every room was full, and we had people sleeping in the halls, in the lobby, but they were great people; we had more trouble on some regular weekends! I was never scared; if you like people, they like you. Maybe if you try telling them what to do, then look out!</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The motorcycles were parked on the streets like sardines! I couldn’t believe how pretty some of them were.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>I was great for our business; it gave us the money we needed to pay our debts, and our taxes. they all paid for their rooms, their food, their drinks.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>They (the press) blew that up more than it was. I didn’t even know anything had happened until I read the San Fransisco papers. The town was small enough that if there had been a riot anywhere, I’d have known about it! I had three young children, we just lived a few blocks away, and I was never scared for them. I think the races were on again in ‘51. My husband and I always stood up for the bikers; they were good people."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Gil Armas still rides a 1947 Harley ‘Knucklehead’. He competed in dirt track events, and later sponsored a number of speedway riders.</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"Back then, I was a hod carrier; I worked for a plastering outfit in L.A.. I had a ‘36 Harley, and rode with the Boozefighters. We used to hang out at the ‘All American’ bar at Firestone and Central. Lots of motorcycle clubs hung out there, including the 13 Rebels, and the Jackrabbits.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Basically, we just went out on rides. Some of us went racing, or did field meets, where there events like relays, drags; there was an event called ‘missing out’ where you’d all start in a big circle, and if you got passed, you were out. At first, most of our racing was ‘outlaw’ races that we organized ourselves, but a few years later, a lot of us went professional, and raced in (A.M.A.-sanctioned) half miles and miles. I retired (from racing) in ‘53.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>I just went out to Hollister for the ride. A couple of my friends were racing. My bike was all apart, and I threw it on a trailer and towed it up there; I didn’t want to miss out on the fun. I ended up sleeping in the car.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>We started partying. There were so many motorcycles there that the police blocked off the road. In fact, they sort of joined in. There were four of them in a jeep. We sort of had a tug-of-war, with us pushing it one way, and them pushing it the other. Tempers flared a little when somebody stole a cop’s hat, but it all blew over. There was racing in the street, some stuff like that, but the cops had it under control.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Later on, the papers were telling stories like we broke a bunch of guys out of jail, but nothing like that happened at all. There were a couple of arrests, basically for drunk-and-disorderly; all we did was go down and bail them out. In fact, a few of the clubs tried to force the papers to print a retraction. They did write a retraction, but it was so small you’d never see it.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The bar owners were standing out front of the bars saying ‘Bring your bike in!’. They put mine right up on the bar.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>On Sunday, the cops came back with riot guns, and told us all to pack up and leave. At first, we just sat on the curb and laughed at them, because there was no riot going on, but we all left anyway.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>In those days, if you rode a motorcycle, then anybody that rode a motorcycle was your buddy. We (Boozefighters) were just into throwing parties."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">August ‘Gus’ Deserpa lived in Hollister. He is the smiling young man seen in the background of the famous ‘Life Magazine’ photo.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"I was projectionist by trade. I worked at the Granada Theater, which was on the corner of Seventh and San Benito. I would have got off work around 11 p.m.. My wife came to pick me up, and we decided to walk up Main Street to see what was going on.&nbsp;</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>I saw two guys scraping all these bottles together, that had been lying in the street. Then they positioned a motorcycle in the middle of the pile. After a while this drunk guy comes staggering out of the bar, and they got him to sit on the motorcycle, and started to take his picture.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>I thought ‘That isn’t right’, and I got around against the wall, where I’d be in the picture, thinking that they wouldn’t take it if someone else was in there. But they did anyway. A few days later the papers came out and I was right there in the background.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>They weren’t doing anything bad, just riding up and down whooping and hollering; not really doing any harm at all."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Marylou Williams and her husband owned a drug store on Hollister’s main street.</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"My husband and I owned the Hollister Pharmacy, which was right next door to Johnny’s Bar, on Main Street. We went upstairs in the Elks Building, to watch the goings-on in the street. I remember that the sidewalks were so crowded that we had to squeeze right along the wall of the building.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Up on the second floor of the Elks Building, they had some small balconies. They were too small to step out onto, but you could lean out and get a good view of the street. I brought my kids along; I had two daughters. They were about 8 and 4 at the time. It never occurred to me to be worried about their safety. We saw them riding up and down the street, but that was about all; when the rodeo was in town, the cowboys were as bad."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Harry Hill is a retired Colonel, USAF. He was in visiting his parents in Hollister during the 1947 riots.</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"I was in the Service then, but I was home for the long weekend. Hollister was a farming community back then. The population was about 4,500 or so. Now it’s a bedroom community for Silicon Valley, and the population is about 20,000.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Before the war, they had motorcycle races out at Bolado Park, about 10 miles southeast of town. I believe the big event was a 100-mile cross country race. Back then, the AMA had a thing called a Gypsy Tour; people would come from all over on motorcycles. Besides the races there were other contests: precision riding, decorating motorcycles.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>I liked motorcycles; I started riding in about 1930, and at different times had both Harleys and Indians. I stopped riding when I enlisted in the Air Force, in about ‘41, so my bikes were old ‘tank shift’ types.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Back then, the race weekend wasn’t necessarily the biggest thing in town, but it was as big as the rodeo, or the saddle horse show. It seems to me that there were always two or three people killed during those weekends; people racing, and riding drunk, but things changed after the war; they got a lot rowdier.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>In ‘47, I was still on active duty. I guess I was quite a bit more disciplined than the average biker that rode in that weekend. It was such a madhouse; my parents were elderly, too, and I didn’t feel it was right to leave them alone, so I stayed around the house. I sure heard it, though.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>On Sunday, I took a look around. It was a mess, but there was no real evidence of any physical damage; no fires, or anything like that.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>There seemed to a be a lot more drinking going on when the motorcycle boys were in town, than when the cowboys were in town. When the motorcycle boys got rowdy, we used to say ‘Turn the cowboys loose on ‘em!’.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Years later, I started riding again. Frankly, I was worried about the image we had as motorcyclists: the Hell’s Angels, the booze, the whores... (motorcycling’s) reputation got real bad. And there continued to be bad publicity at places like Bass Lake, where there was a big annual biker gathering. But I rode because I loved it. My last bikes were a Kawasaki Mach III in the seventies, and a Kawasaki 1000, which I sold in 1990."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jim Cameron is still a motorcycle racer, riding a Jeff Smith-built BSA Gold Star in vintage motocross events. "Because of my age," he laughs, "AHRMA will only let me compete in the ‘Novice’ class!"</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"I was a Boozefighter. The Boozefighters were formed a year or so earlier. Wino Willie had been a member of the Compton Roughriders. They had gone to an AMA race, a dirt track, in San Diego. In between heats, Willie, he’d been drinking, of course, started up his bike and rode a few laps around the track, just for laughs. Eventually they got him flagged off. The Roughriders sort of kicked him out of the club for that; they felt he had embarassed them.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Willie decided that if they couldn’t see the humour in that, he’d start his own club. Back then a bunch of us hung out at a bar in South L.A., called the All American. Several clubs met there: the 13 Rebels, the Yellowjackets, anyway, Willie was talking to some other guy about what to name the club, and there was an old drunk listening in. This old drunk pipes up "Why don’t you call yourselves the ‘Boozefighters’. Willie thought that was funny as hell, so that was the name.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The name Boozefighters was misleading, we didn’t do any fighting at all. It was hard to get in; you had to come to five meetings, then there was a vote, and if you got one blackball, you were out. We wore green and white sweaters with a beer bottle on the front and ‘Boozefighters’ on the back.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Back then, I was 23 or 24 I guess, I had just come out of the Air Force. I’d been in the Pacific, but Willie and some of the others had been paratroopers over in Europe. They’d had it pretty rough in the war. I had an Indian Scout, and a Harley ‘45 that I used as a messenger.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Back then, the AMA organized these ‘Gypsy Tours’. One was going up to Hollister on the Independence Day weekend. That sounded good, so a bunch of us decided to ride up there.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>We left L.A. Thursday night, and rode through the night. I think my Scout only went about 55 miles an hour, so it took quite a while. I think we rode until we were exhausted, and stopped to sleep for a few hours in King City. It was about 6</i> <i>a.m. when I woke up. It was pretty cold, and when the liquor store opened, I bought a bottle, which I drank to try to get warm. Then I rode on in Hollister.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>It was about 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning when I arrived there. I was riding up the street, and I see this guy, another Boozefighter come out of a bar, and he yells ‘Come on in!’. So I rode my bike right into the bar. The owner was there, and he didn’t seem to mind at all. He could see I was already pretty drunk, so he wanted to take my keys; he didn’t think I should go riding in my condition. The Indian didn’t need a key to start it, but I left it there in the bar the whole weekend.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>I don’t think there were more than maybe 7 of us from the L.A. Boozefighters there. There were some guys from the ‘Frisco Boozefighters, too. One of our guys had a ‘36 Cadillac. He used that to tow up our trailer. We had a trailer with maybe fifteen or sixteen bunks in it; stacked three high on both sides. Basically, we’d drink and party until we crapped out, then we’d go in there and sleep it off.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>They claimed there were about 3,000 guys there. I think most of them went out to the dirt track races outside of town, but we didn’t. We were having fun right there. The street was lined with motorcycles, and the cops had blocked it off. Basically, guys were just showing off; drag racing, doing power circles, seeing how many people they could put on one bike, and we were just watching and laughing.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The leader of the ‘Frisco Boozefighters was a guy we called Kokomo. He was up in the second or third floor window of the hotel, where there was a telephone wire that went out across the street. He was wearing a crizy red uniform, like a circus clown, and he was standing in the window pretending like he was going to step out onto the wire, like a tightrope walker. It was funny as hell.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>There were a couple of cops there, but they were playing it cool. Basically, they didn’t arrest anybody unless they did something to deserve it. The one Boozefighter I can think of that got arrested was a ‘Frisco guy. Some of them had come down in a Model T Ford. It was overheating, and while they were driving down the street, he was trying to piss into the radiator. Anyway, they arrested him, and Wino Willie went down to try to get him out; he was pretty drunk at the time, so they arested him, too. But they let them both out after a few hours.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Around Saturday night I started to sober up. After all, I had to ride home on Sunday. I guess I, got my bike out of the bar and headed home at about 4 p.m. on Sunday. It definitely wasn’t as big a deal as the papers made it out to be."</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">John Lomanto owned a farm a few miles from Hollister. He was an avid motorcyclist, and a well-known local racer.</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>"I worked with my father on our farm, which was just a few miles from Hollister. We grew walnuts, apricots, and prunes. I had a ‘41 Harley, and was one of the original members of the Hollister Top Hatters Motorcycle Club. In fact, the first few meetings were held in one of our barns, but later on we rented a clubhouse in downtown Hollister. We met three times month. We were a real club, with a President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and all that. Our wives came, too. Our uniform was a yellow sweater with red sleeves.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>There were a few races going on that weekend; I think there was a 1/2 mile race, and a TT. I didn’t go to the races, but I rode my bike downtown.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>It was pretty exciting. The main street was blocked off, and the whole town was motorcycles all over the place. Everybody had a beer in their hand; I can’t say there weren’t a few drunks, but there was no real fighting.”</i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 18px; text-align: center; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><u>Hollister Redux</u></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>About ten years later, Bike Magazine asked me to write a feature on Hollister, and while I was visiting the town, another witness surfaced...</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I went back to Hollister a couple of weeks ago. Regular readers will know that I’ve covered the famous Hollister motorcycle riot at some length in the past, but a UK magazine asked me to revisit it.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The riot took place over 60 years ago. I did my original research, interviewing about a dozen eyewitnesses, almost ten years ago, and even then it was hard to separate the witnesses’ genuine memories from tales they’d told and retold, or read. I hardly expected anything new to come to light.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kj8HBfI6fCA/VVzFMrxIuBI/AAAAAAAAC4I/XddLKFHJQMc/s1600/BM20080710_Ted.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kj8HBfI6fCA/VVzFMrxIuBI/AAAAAAAAC4I/XddLKFHJQMc/s320/BM20080710_Ted.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was surprised to find one more eyewitness, ex-racer Ted Ponton.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was pleasantly surprised when the Salinas Ramblers MC’s Charlotte Gomes sent me an email pointing out that her club’s oldest member, Ted Ponton, had been in Hollister on that famous weekend. I called Mr. Ponton, who despite being well into his ‘80s, still works every day in his glass shop in Salinas, and still rides.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I went to see him in his shop. The walls were covered with the memorabilia of a remarkable life on two wheels. Being present at the Hollister riot was just one of his stories. He also rode a ‘67 Bonneville to Alaska, and chaperoned a teenaged Doug Chandler when he first started racing on the AMA Grand National Championship circuit. The old man was cool.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Ramblers (I called them the “Scramblers” in earlier reports) promoted the half-mile flat track race at Hollister, which was expected to be one of the highlights of the 1947 AMA “Gypsy Tour” on that July 4 weekend.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I already knew there had been racing scheduled as part of the event. I knew that there had been a hillclimb a few miles out of town at Bolado Park (the rut they used to race up has long since been overgrown with brush, but it’s still a faintly visible scar on one of the bluffs.) And I knew that races were held in Hollister within a few years, which I always took as proof that the riot had not been <i>that</i> bad.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Talking to Ted, I realized that the half-mile had been held <i>the day after</i> the riot had been quelled. About 3,000 people had attended, netting the Ramblers about $3,000, which was good money in the day. He told me the races had been held at Memorial Park, which had then been on the outskirts of town. “It was a berm track,” he said “and you can still see the berm.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hollister’s ten times the size it was in ‘47. Veteran’s Memorial Park is now surrounded by suburbs. What used to be the flat track is now ball diamonds, although the berm is indeed still visible at one end. It was steeply banked, which accounted for the fast, 80mph lap speeds.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Although the thunder of racing motorcycles has been replaced by the sound of aluminum bats hitting baseballs, Hollister’s still a pretty bike-friendly town. There are a couple of metric dealerships, doing a good business thanks to the nearby offroad vehicle recreation area. There are a few chopper shops, too. And several gaudy, biker-themed murals.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I stopped to photograph one of them, on the wall of a bar called “Johnny’s” on San Benito Street. It’s right in the middle of the strip where the “riot” took place. I heard some drunk, inside, slurring something about “I’ll break that camera.” Then two fat broads walked out. One of them made a hand gesture that was either some kind of white-trash gang sign, or she was just trying to give me the finger but was too drunk to select the appropriate digit. I got the feeling that, in that bar, they were still desperate to live the “persecuted biker” myth.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That didn’t really jibe with the Corbin-sponsored, printed vinyl banners on every streetlamp, proudly describing Hollister as the “birthplace of the American biker.”&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I got a friendlier greeting at the Hollister Evening Freelance. A reporter went into the archive and came out with a big, leather-bound volume of their 1947 issues.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I flipped brittle, yellowed pages to find Monday, July 7. The coverage included a detailed list of arrests:</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Drunkenness-22</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Disturbing the peace-9</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Drunk driving-6</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Reckless driving-2</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Miscellaneous-10 (everything from vagrancy to indecent exposure—the latter charge probably relating to the radiator-pissing incident.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hazel Hawkins Hospital admitted 50 injured people. Three of them suffered “serious” wounds: one compound fracture to a spectator run over by a stunting motorcycle; one concussion; one foot “almost severed.”&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Freelance devoted almost as much space to other newspapers’ coverage of the riot as it did to the riot itself. Local reporters noted—with barely concealed satisfaction—that they’d been pestered by phone calls from out-of-town media all weekend.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So where did all that leave the famous Hollister riot? Ironically, the sensational media coverage of Hollister helped to spawn truly criminal outlaw bike gangs.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It wasn’t until the ‘70s that motorcycling was finally redeemed in the public eye. “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” became a memorable ad slogan. Then in the ‘80s, Harley-Davidson’s ad agency, Carmichael-Lynch, pulled off a coup by redeeming the outlaw biker image itself, and co-opting it as a marketing position. Somewhere in there, the myth of the Hollister riot did a complete 180. Motorcyclists spread the idea that nothing had happened at all; that it had been a complete fabrication by yellow journalists.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There were dozens of arrests and injuries, OK? Something happened. But it doesn’t matter anyway. This is America; our history is spun by ad agencies and PR firms. Was Hollister the birthplace of the American biker? No. The birthplace of the American biker myth? Maybe. Is the town’s Chamber of Commerce eager to promote an annual gathering every July, for thousands of biker wannabees? Definitely.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Palatino; margin-bottom: 4px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was happy to ride out of town before they arrived.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-44649109590010103342015-05-10T15:54:00.004-07:002015-05-10T15:54:42.347-07:00RIP: Big Wheel in the art world—motorcycle fan Chris Burden<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 21.6px;"><b><i>I just noticed that famed L.A.-based conceptual artist Chris Burden, 69, has died. Back in 2009, I interviewed him on the occasion of the re-installation of a sculpture he created forty years earlier. It was called "The Big Wheel".</i></b></span><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 21.6px;"><br /></span></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gMIH0AE57_Y/VU_bV6mupBI/AAAAAAAAC3c/QO2296ML9DQ/s1600/Big%2BWheel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gMIH0AE57_Y/VU_bV6mupBI/AAAAAAAAC3c/QO2296ML9DQ/s320/Big%2BWheel.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2009: About a year ago, I was flipping through the Los Angeles Times and saw an article about the permanent collection of the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art (aka MOCA.) I noticed the story because it was illustrated with a photo of an extraordinary sculpture, comprised in part of an entire vintage cafe racer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I thought I'd send word of this discovery to a couple of artist friends, but when I googled the artist's name – Chris Burden – I realized that all my artist friends would already know about him.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In 1971, Burden, um, 'shot' to fame when he had one of his assistants fire a .22-calibre bullet through his arm, in front of the stunned crowd in a New York art gallery. That was only one of several masochistic pieces of 'performance art' that turned him into a celebrity in the rarefied world of modern art. A decade later he'd abandoned performance for sculpture and – who knew? – it turned out that he was really talented, not just a self-destructive nut job with a knack for self-promotion. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Big Wheel, which he created in 1979, used a 1968 Wards Riverside 250 to spin a three-ton cast iron wheel salvaged from some mine (where the wheel had been part of a pump apparatus.) When it was unveiled, the New York Times' art critic wrote, “The contrast is wonderful: this old, simple Goliath of a wheel, man's first 'machine,' powered by a modern David -- small, complex and delicate.”&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Seeing the elegant little bike, I wondered why I'd never heard of a Riverside. It was actually a Benelli imported into the U.S. by the Montgomery Ward catalog company . 'Riverside' was the name Ward used for all its private-label auto accessories; a reference to Riverside International Raceway, which was a big circuit east of L.A.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For most of the 20</span><span style="font-size: 8px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>th</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> century, two Chicago-based mail-order retailers—Sears and its arch-rival Montgomery Ward—distributed thick catalogs to virtually every home in the U.S. That's why I didn't know about Riverside. You see, I grew up in Canada where we had the Sears catalog (it was known as Simpson-Sears up there) but we didn't get the Wards catalog.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Still, I was familiar with the concept, since the Sears catalog was as ubiquitous in Canadian homes as it was down here. The catalogs' appearance was particularly welcomed by housewives in the small towns and rural farmsteads scattered across the prairies where I lived. The tone was conservative; in the pages devoted to bra-and-panty sets, the models had their navels airbrushed out. For whole families, the catalogs were an opportunity to fantasize about a more glamorous world over the horizon; I guess they filled the role that the Web fills now. While the emphasis was on clothing and housewares, the product mix included almost everything you'd find in a North American home. For a while, Sears even sold </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">houses[ital]</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">. What interested me, of course, were the motorcycles.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the 1960s, Sears seemed to favor bikes of Teutonic origin—Sachs and Puch—which were rebadged as 'Allstate' for the U.S. and Canada. They sold for $200 to $600. Wards' buyers scoured Italian factories and warehouses and were often able to drive hard bargains with Italian companies that were always on the verge of bankruptcy. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The little 'Ward's Riverside 250' has already outlived the Riverside track, which closed in 1989. And Montgomery Ward, which went bankrupt itself in 2000. It's a shame it all had to end. I get a subversive frisson from the idea of sexy Italian motorcycles being sold into the bible belt.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Or showing up in the Museum of Contemporary Art. That was why, when I heard that MOCA was going to include The Big Wheel in an upcoming show at the&nbsp; Geffen Contemporary – a branch of MOCA in L.A.'s Little Tokyo&nbsp;– I weaseled my way into a press preview so I could meet the artist. I was curious whether the choice of a motorcycle as the means of spinning the wheel had been arbitrary, or whether Burden had a real motorcycle history.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ironically Burden gave up his teaching job at UCLA when a student brought a realistic-but-fake gun into one of his classes and staged a 'performance piece' of his own, pretending to play Russian Roulette. Burden insisted the student should be punished, and resigned his teaching position when the student was not.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Burden has, since then, spent most of his time working on large works of art at his Topanga Canyon studio. Although he's got a reputation as something of a hermit, he was positively loquacious on the subject of motorcycles. Here's what he had to say about that particular motorcycle, and motorcycles in general...</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“The idea of the flywheel came before the idea of the motorcycle. I knew about flywheels in general, and was interested in them as a way of storing energy. I investigated making a concrete one – pouring a concrete circle – but I talked to some engineers about it and they said concrete's good on compression strength but terrible on tensile. And I'd go to the Santa Monica library and research flywheels and I kept seeing this image [of a huge cast iron flywheel.] And I kept looking at these images, and they'd talk about the 'bursting speed,' which is the speed at which the spokes won't hold the rim and... boom.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I thought, These things are already made, I don't need to make one I just need to find one. I called scrap dealers and junk yards. I finally called a guy down in Long Beach who repaired giant generators. He had gotten a job dismantling some huge piece of equipment and he'd saved this wheel, because he liked it aesthetically. He said, I've got an eight foot flywheel sitting in my yard. I asked how much he wanted for it. He said, A thousand bucks. I was there in 20 minutes.</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So I'm sitting around figuring out how to get it to spin. I'm thinking about electric motors, or should I hook it to the back wheel of my truck... I owned a motorcycle. I thought, Take of the rear fender and there it is.</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">&nbsp;<i style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I'd had a bunch of motorcycles when I was young. I think I bought this in '76 or '77; it was ten years old then. The guy said he wanted $400 or something. I offered him $300 or $350, and rode it home.</span></i></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I grew up in Cambridge, Mass. My parents were totally against motorcycles. So I ended up buying this 200cc Triumph Cub in parts. My parents didn't think it would ever run. So I schlepped it into the Triumph dealer in downtown Boston, and over the course of about a year, they got a new cylinder; they rebuilt the whole bike.</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">That was a long time ago, and it was a rough section of town, you know what I'm saying? And they were real bikers; I was this little prep-school kid. They'd grouch at me. Outside, there were all these black hookers who'd call out, Hey Harvard Boy...</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When they finished it, it snowed that day. I rode it home in the snow. I had for a year or a year and half. Eventually I broke the crank. But I went to Italy after that, and bought a little 50cc Bianchi. Then I bought another bike fifty, a Guazzoni, with a rotary valve. [According to my well-worn copy of Tragatsch's The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Motorcycles, Aldo Guazzoni left Moto Morini in the late '40s and built his own motorcycles, including “some very fast 49cc versions” until the late '70s – MG]</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I rode that around Italy one summer with a friend. I brought that home and traded it to a guy that had a Bultaco TSS road racer, which I took out to Pomona College in parts. I put that together and rode that around for a while. Eventually I sold that and bought a BSA Gold Star.</span></i></span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I sold that, and bought a brand-new Triumph Bonneville in '67 in London. I rode that to Spain, and I came back to the U.S., and it was stolen within a few weeks. Four years later, the Highway Patrol found it, but it had been made into a chopper.</span></i></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I didn't have a bike for a while. But then eventually I bought this Benelli. I like the lightness of it. About five or ten years ago, I bought a 350 Benelli. I suppose it ran when I got it, but it's just been sitting there. I promised my wife I wouldn't ride it.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Anyway, I came up with this idea, of rocking the Benelli back against the flywheel, running it up through the gears, then rocking the bike forward, away from the flywheel and just letting it spin. It was bought by a collector named Arnold Ford, who has another one of my sculptures in his house – that one is called 'Yin-Yang' and it is made up of a small International earth-mover and a Lotus Europa car. And the guy's house is small! The Lotus is six feet from his couch, and the crawler is in his foyer. But he had no room for the big wheel so he kept it in storage for a while, then it was acquired by the Lannan Foundation, which in turn passed it on to MOCA.</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There's so much energy in the – who knows, half a cup? – of gasoline that you burn in the motorcycle [getting the wheel up to speed.] Those days are coming to a close of course, but there's this kick of energy, then the wheel spins for two or three hours, and you watch it dissipate. I've been interested in mechanical efficiency for a long time. I created <a href="http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/exhsolo/exhbur77b.html" target="_blank">the B-car</a>, which used a lot of motorcycle parts, too</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">.</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">One nice thing is, when you elevate a machine like this to art, it's preserved.”</span></i></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It's definitely a kinetic sculpture. After we chatted, Burden used the motorcycle to get the big wheel spinning, running it up through the gears, revving the hell out of it, until it reached the redline in fourth.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The wheel, once up to speed, did spin for several hours. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-chris-burden-dies-20150510-story.html" target="_blank"><b><i>Chris Burden, however, ran out of gas earlier this week.</i></b></a></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-64572684969001663462015-05-01T16:30:00.001-07:002015-05-01T18:08:20.406-07:00The FIM's policy on Adderall? WADA bunch of bullshit<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Last week, to no one's surprise, the FIM finally closed the amphetamine-doping case of James 'Bubba' Stewart. The FIM upheld an earlier ban which was appealed by Bubba’s team, Yoshimura Suzuki.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">After Bubba tested positive for speed (the chemical kind, not as in ‘velocity’—he's always tested positive for that) he and his team spun it as, “Oh, it’s just Adderall; it’s a prescribed medication for his ADHD</span><span style="font-size: 12px;">…</span><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">”&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vm-r7cVUWzQ/VUQJaQs3VDI/AAAAAAAAC28/DKyAz6pFwEE/s1600/Bubba.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vm-r7cVUWzQ/VUQJaQs3VDI/AAAAAAAAC28/DKyAz6pFwEE/s1600/Bubba.png" height="226" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">They were being naive—if not disingenuous—by implying that it was ‘just Adderall’ as in, 'not real amphetamines'. Adderall is speed. It’s fancy, pharmaceutical grade, patented speed, but it’s speed.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As if baffled, Bubba, sent out a release saying, basically, “But I have a TUE...” The thing is, he didn’t apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption until <i>after</i> he was caught. If he actually had a prescription before the 2014 Seattle SX event, Yosh should’ve made that clear. If such is the case, Yosh and Bubba are, according to the letter of the rules, still guilty. But they’re guilty of not following procedure—as opposed to guilty of cheating in search of a competitive advantage.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-ant-west-case-its-fim-and-motogp-who.html" target="_blank">Regular readers know that I’m not inclined to kiss WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency’s) ass.</a>&nbsp;And I freely admit that&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I don’t know or care much about Bubba’s case in particular.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there’s an overwhelming consensus among sport scientists, sports medicine, and PED specialists that Adderall use does confer a competitive advantage.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">According to Dr. Gary Wadler, past chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List Committee, “It masks fatigue, masks pain, increases arousal—like being in The Zone. [And] it increases alertness, aggressiveness, attention and concentration. It improves reaction time, especially when fatigued. Some think it enhances hand-eye coordination. Some believe it increases the mental aspects of performance.”</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I.E., unlike steroids, which are of questionable benefit to motorcycle racers because massive strength is superfluous while increased body mass is an actual disadvantage, <b>Adderall is a perfect performance enhancer in our sport</b>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That fact intersects with this one: ‘legal’ (prescribed) Adderall use is at least 10 times as common in the U.S than in almost any other country.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Seriously. As many as 20% of American boys have prescriptions for Adderall or similar drugs, while about 1.5% of French boys ‘need’ to be medicated. Don't get me started; American doctors are falling over themselves to prescribe it. We’re at a point where anyone in the U.S.—<i>anyone</i>—can easily get a prescription for Adderall.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Considering the overwhelming evidence that most Americans’ Adderall prescriptions are both unnecessary and likely harmful, WADA should at the very least review each application for an Adderall TUE and insist on an independent medical exam. But they don’t.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">By contrast, TUEs for substances like HGH require clinically measurable evidence of deficiency. The only people who qualify for a testosterone TUE are female-to-male transexuals. But any American can easily get a doctor’s prescription for Adderall and, after filling out some paperwork, use the drug to gain a competitive advantage on the race track.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Foreign racers should be pissed off that is there a Therapeutic Use Exemption for Adderall at all. Many sports—even baseball, perhaps the most American of of them all—ban it outright.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">WADA and the FIM have created a situation in which, before long, racers will be pressured to use Adderall to level the playing field, in spite of mounting evidence that its use comes with deleterious short and long term side effects. At the very least, the FIM should release statistics on the number of Adderall TUEs.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Better yet, it’s time for the FIM to grow some balls (or, just give itself a TUE for testosterone) and <b>ban Adderall once and for all.</b></span></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-76109473284148931842015-04-29T07:50:00.002-07:002015-04-29T07:50:55.798-07:00"Never mind the dog, beware of the owner"<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We’ve been living on Holmes Street for four months now. And even though we bought a house with a fenced yard “for the dog”, I still walk him to the park three times a day. It’s just a much nicer park. Although Mr. Chubbs must miss his girlfriend, Betty.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This morning, Mr. Chubbs and I exited through the back gate. I guess the water table’s dropped a little, since there’s finally not a trickle of water running from my sump drain, down the alley towards the street.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On the last corner before the park (which is only the second before the park, and that’s only if you count leaving the alley) there’s one of our block’s scruffier houses. Mr. Chubbs frequently pees on a car projecting out of the driveway onto the sidewalk. It’s a tiny, first-generation Honda Civic; just a body shell and motor, with no glass or interior. It’s a cool project, that would normally make me like the owner, but his property has a “Never mind the dog, beware of the owner” sign, which is 99.5% of the way to proving the owner’s an asshole.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The dog bit Mr. Chubbs once. The owner’s kid had it out, on a leash, and it surged forward, dragging the kid off his feet and across the little lawn on his belly, until it could get Mr. Chubbs and bite him. No real harm was done; Mr. Chubbs is usually the instigator, and probably did project his own aggressive vibe. All I can say is, that dog was lucky Betty wasn’t with us. Betty ferociously defends Mr. Chubbs. And, it made me feel better about Mr. Chubbs peeing on the Civic.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The asshole’s a Honda guy. There are two or three Honda cars and minivans there, as well as two—well, one and a half—Honda motorcycles in the driveway. They’re the kind of customs that really make you wonder why anyone would go to that much effort. A weird cafe/chopped Gold Wing, and what looks like a single-sided VFR frame with a Yamaha XS650 twin motor grafted in there. Seriously. Why? It’s as if, maybe fifteen years ago, Japan and the U.S. had an argument and Japan slapped an embargo on exports.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, we got to the park without incident. The threshold of the park is marked by a sign saying, “All pets must be on a leash”. That’s the point where I let him off, and throw the frisbee. A woman walked past, dressed sort of like a stylish Bedouin. In the distance, coming from the other direction, was a big black dude, wearing headphones. He was carrying a stick and singing falsetto, along to whatever he was listening to. I was out in the grass; we exchanged hand-flips.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On the way back, I saw the black guy—he was also dressed in black, from head to foot—standing in front of a large tree. He was motionless; it was almost as if he was communing with it in some way. Then, he shook out a skipping rope, and skipped. He was a pretty good skipper. Maintained a good pace, with a low, well-timed, economical jump. I know, because I am an excellent skipper, or at least I used to be; I’m now, realistically, a very good skipper. After about a minute of skipping, he stopped. It was a pretty good effort, for a guy his size and age. At that point, I was at my closest approach to him, he looked up and said, “Take it easy.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mr. Chubbs and I crossed Gilham Parkway, walked the half-block past the bad customizer’s house, back up the alley, and into our own yard.&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The sun was still low in the sky, casting ‘magic hour’ light across the lawn. It looks better, ever since I resurrected the Briggs &amp; Stratton-powered lawnmower that the previous owner abandoned in the basement.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Speaking of things near-abandoned in the basement, I’ve been thinking about selling all my bikes. As it is, I have three that work, most of the time. And one that has been stalled at 95% complete—a 1963 Honda Dream 150—since I bought it five years ago. I’m getting screwed on insurance, registration, and property taxes; the State of Missouri—as far as I can tell—seems to think all motorcycles are of approximately equal value.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Except for my Vino scooter, all my bikes <i>could</i> be cool. But I’m starting to realize I’m just not the guy who’s ever going to simultaneously have the time, money, and gumption to make that happen. And for the moment, they all need varying degrees of maintenance to even be made safe and reliable.&nbsp;They're at that stage where you look at one of them and think, I should go for a ride, but how much work would it be to get it started.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And the fact that they’re down there in the basement in that condition irks me. I avoid looking at them the way fat people avoid mirrors in locker rooms. If I sold them all—I mean, if I sold my bikes, not, if I sold all the fat people—I could probably get enough money to buy one better one; something more reliable and broadly functional.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the meantime, if I spent the summer bicycling everywhere, I’d be better for&nbsp; it.&nbsp;</span></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-57298669202917390422015-04-24T09:03:00.002-07:002015-04-24T09:10:46.750-07:00It turns out that boredom is an interesting topic. And, American fans are mostly bi.Well, with about a week to go, it's a foregone conclusion that this month will be in the top-four all-time months on this blog. The only question remaining is, will be #3, #2, or even #1?<br /><br />Ironically, most of this traffic comes as a result of the big debate (read the posts just below) about the dearth of interesting content online. I guess there are a few thousand people at least who find an argument about boredom to be, itself, quite interesting.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v0ZwAM5pP7o/VTpo0NdKSUI/AAAAAAAAC2k/qv1Omt_814k/s1600/Rossi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v0ZwAM5pP7o/VTpo0NdKSUI/AAAAAAAAC2k/qv1Omt_814k/s1600/Rossi.png" height="121" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nowadays, there are more people who wonder whether Rossi's still alive than there are who wonder if he's gay. But I still get a measurable spike in traffic after a Rossi victory. The question is, why does it come from the U.K., and not the U.S.?</td></tr></tbody></table><span id="goog_383646832"></span><br />The other traffic driver is Valentino Rossi's surge into the lead of the 2015 MotoGP standings. With his novice-class-style mistake in Argentina, Marc Marquez has dug a hole for himself that threatens to make the rest of the season quite interesting. The thing is, I hardly ever write about MotoGP. My blog gets a surge in traffic whenever Rossi wins, because of posts I put up years ago, when I sacrificed any chance of ever getting a Dorna media accreditation by writing about the persistent rumors surrounding his sexual orientation.<br /><br />The first of those posts, which is my all-time highest-traffic post, <a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2013/05/motogps-gay-question-confronting.html" target="_blank">is here</a>. About a year ago, I wrote <a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2014/04/valentino-rossi-comes-out.html" target="_blank">an April Fool's post</a>, admitting that as far as I could tell, the verdict was in on Rossi: straight.<br /><br />Most people agree with me. Because back in 2008, if you opened a Google search window and typed, "Is Valentino Rossi..." Google filled in 'gay', and 'homosexual' as suggestions. But if you do it now, it offers 'married' as a suggestion.<br /><br />The thing is, if you <i>do</i> ask Google if he's gay, one of the first places Google sends you is to this blog. (As if I'd know. I actually never thought he was, I was only interested in the reaction the question itself drew.)<br /><br />Anyway, there's an interesting wrinkle to this. Or at least, a boring one. It's that the surge in traffic when Rossi wins doesn't come from the U.S. It comes from the UK, Australia, and South Africa. So why is that? I have a theory... or maybe two.<br /><br />Theory #1 is that the U.S. (Indiana notwithstanding) is less homophobic than the U.K. and, as such people here just don't care.<br /><br />Theory #2, which probably gets closer to the truth, is that homophobia tracks inversely with education and social status. In the U.S., MotoGP fans are mostly bi… coastal. They live in big cities, concentrated on the coasts, and have good educations; they're less homophobic, as a group, than the country as a whole. I suspect that in the U.K., MotoGP fans are drawn more or less evenly from the population as a whole, or even skew working class. While those people aren't all homophobes, there's enough of 'em in there to kick up my traffic with every Rossi win.<br /><br />The bummer for me is, those little spikes in traffic don't really correlate with little spikes in book sales. It's to the point where I sometimes think I should pull the posts down, since they're skewing my traffic figures. (Between the people who still wonder whether Rossi is gay, and the Russian spiders monitoring my blog, it's possible that my traffic's not really even trending upward in any meaningful sense.)<br /><br />Anyway, I haven't and probably won't pull the posts down, even though they generate bogus traffic—because the second one is genuinely funny and the first still opens a worthwhile discussion.Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-13415595522220396932015-04-17T10:57:00.002-07:002015-04-17T17:02:00.993-07:00"There's no good motorcycle content anymore": Conclusion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KNM9hqt_q2A/VTFHGx5z3lI/AAAAAAAAC1g/aaKO4OpjDsE/s1600/lanesplitter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KNM9hqt_q2A/VTFHGx5z3lI/AAAAAAAAC1g/aaKO4OpjDsE/s1600/lanesplitter.png" height="108" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2015/04/is-there-really-no-more-good-motorcycle.html" target="_blank">Re: HTMTNGMB, Part 1</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2015/04/is-there-really-no-more-good-motorcycle_11.html" target="_blank">Re: HTMTNGMB, Part 2</a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2015/04/is-there-really-no-more-good-motorcycle_13.html" target="_blank">Re: HTMTNGMB, Part 3</a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A couple of weeks ago, ex-Hell for Leather motorcycle blogger Wes Siler wrote, "<a href="http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/how-to-make-the-next-great-motorcycle-blog-1695705804" target="_blank">there's no good motorcycle content anymore</a>", before laying out a fairly detailed set of instructions to hack a motorcycle blog that would pull in half a million 'uniques' a month and, he said, earn the blogger a low six-figure income in Amazon Affiliate commissions.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I called bullshit.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ironically, the first three posts in this series drew a lot of traffic, by the standards of this blog. Nowhere remotely close to half a million, but enough that April 2015 will probably end up one of the top five months ever, for <a href="http://bikewriter.com/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">bikewriter.com</span></a>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That, and a coupl'a bucks'll buy me a coffee.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H3PxRjZVpyo/VTFHPrtrC3I/AAAAAAAAC1o/9HySIOXpT50/s1600/load%2Bof%2Bcrap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H3PxRjZVpyo/VTFHPrtrC3I/AAAAAAAAC1o/9HySIOXpT50/s1600/load%2Bof%2Bcrap.png" height="85" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If the comments under the Facebook updates I made, announcing each new blog post, are any indication, it was a topic that my FB friends (at least) have strong opinions on. I was not shying away from controversy myself, either. When I wrote "If you want half a million uniques, put up a ton of crap" it was bound to piss off the few people operating motorcycle blogs or web sites that really do pull in that many visitors. "[A] ton of crap" isn't a flattering way to describe anyone’s site.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The operators of sites like BikeEXIF slammed me on FB, and then people siding with me leapt to my defense. The Gawker media guys jumped on me, accusing me of first saying that you couldn't easily get half a million views, and then "moving the goal posts" when they showed me web sites that easily did just that.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #141824; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“By the way,” </i>one Gawker blogger wrote, <i>“me and a partner started on Jalopnik's car buying sub blog almost a year ago, and we have 1.2 million unique visitors per month, from nothing, doing exactly what I mentioned above. It can be done, especially with something as ubiquitous as motorcycles.”</i></span></div><div style="color: #141824; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #141824; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was, like, Motorcycles are ubiquitous? Compared to cars? And is anyone spending an hour doing a deep dive into your web site, for their literary gratification? Me and a friend.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But I didn't move the goal posts. Way back in the post that started it all, Wes described opening a beer and his computer and spending an hour reading serious, quality motorcycle journalism; he wanted unique stories that he couldn't find elsewhere. And the truth is that none of the sites people presented as counterexamples were sites you'd spend an hour on.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Don't get me wrong. I don't mind BikeEXIF. I drop by there every now and then, usually after someone's posted a link somewhere. And sometimes I see bikes I think are cool. Usually I see bikes that look good but don't look like they work good. Still, I certainly don't begrudge BikeEXIF its business success.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">People reminded me of sites like ADVrider and RevZilla that link to, or put up, good content. Those two (each in different ways) come close to filling the bill that Wes said couldn't be filled on the Web, these days.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I'll add, for those of you who might go back into FB and review all the comments, that quite a few people contacted me privately with long, well thought-out comments. They were writers who maybe didn't want their editors to read those comments in a public forum, or editors who didn't want their publishers to read them. There are people in the motorcycle industry who read my blog but don't want their employers to know they follow and even occasionally agree with a bomb-throwing Canadian (read: socialist).</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Many of those people bemoaned exactly what I said, that there's simply not a half million strong audience for serious, in-depth, long-form journalism. They shared stories of carefully crafted and insightful stories that drew a few thousand views, while shitty listicles drew a hundred times as many.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jim McDermott, who commented publicly, said a mouthful when he said, "What do you mean there's no good motorcycle content? There's no good content, period!"</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-haddFxtASLM/VTFHgQD9_BI/AAAAAAAAC1w/Lpuul3W_jt0/s1600/quantcast.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-haddFxtASLM/VTFHgQD9_BI/AAAAAAAAC1w/Lpuul3W_jt0/s1600/quantcast.png" height="236" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As an example of how little I know, Wes sent a link to Lanesplitter's Quantcast ratings, which actually support my argument. Most of their half-million uniques per month visit once, and look at one page. How long do they spend on that page? Quantcast doesn't say, but you know it's less than a couple of minutes. That's not to belittle Lanesplitter. I guess if I owned it, I'd be a lot richer than I am now. But the vast majority of content on it—<a href="http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/why-no-one-will-sell-you-the-bike-you-want-1641411378" target="_blank">with some exceptions</a>, granted—is simply not shit I'm interested in either writing or reading.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Much of the equivocation revolved around fine points of page views vs. unique visitors, and their implications for ad revenues vs. affiliate commissions. But the truth is, as a writer, neither of those metrics mean shit to me. What I want to know is, how sticky is my story? How many people read it to the end? Or forward it? And most of the high-traffic sites don't make those numbers public, if they even track them. What matters to me is changing people's minds or better yet, influencing their lives. And the only metric I have for that is the emails I get from people who've taken the trouble to track me down after reading one of my stories.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wes was bitching about blogs. But I don't think it's fair to look at them in isolation. Blogs, online magazines, YouTube channels, podcasts; who cares what the exact format is? Shit, some of the most interesting efforts are going into <i>print</i> magazines again. <i>Iron and Air</i> here in the U.S., <i>Esses</i> and <i>Sideburn</i> in the U.K.; they're at least trying (though not in a position to meaningfully pay writers, sadly.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He slammed the old guard print mags. Cycle World and Motorcyclist are easy targets, especially now that Bonnier owns them both. I confess that I hardly look at them any more. But he was lazy when he painted them as the manufacturers' lap dogs.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The truth, as usual, is more nuanced. For years, manufacturers supplied magazines with test bikes and (when it suited them) access; OEMs flew journalists to launches. The result was not so different than branded content in the sense that, while the OEMs didn't actually write checks for the stories, they dramatically reduced the costs of getting those stories. They influenced editorial mixes, for sure.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I won't lie; there were times that editors killed content that would've embarrassed manufacturers (who, of course, were also advertisers.) I attended a launch for Triumph's middleweight sport bike, at Barber a decade ago. The little fleet of bikes lunched two or three motors in a day. Now, they were admittedly "early production" bikes and I'm sure Triumph sent a WTF email to some bearing supplier and halted production until they could sort the problem.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As a journalist, my attitude was that Motorcyclist readers were reading that 'First Ride' report for an impression of the bike, but also to learn what the whole experience was like. Bikes suddenly losing power, and coming into the pits making terrible noises from the bottom end were part of the story, no?</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"No." That’s what Boehm said, too. By way of explanation, he ventured, "We're 'enthusiast publications' and it's our job to be enthusiastic." (Which was actually pretty funny in the context of <a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2014/07/remembering-charles-everitt.html" target="_blank">my experience at the magazine.</a>)</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The thing is, those experiences were rare. And in the magazines' defense, they do often field very skilled riders, even if they're crap as writers. It was far more common for journos to gather at a launch and bemoan the way bikes had all gotten so good that we felt guilty for coming across as cheerleaders; there was just nothing to criticize.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Cycle World and Motorcyclist have been on a bad trend for while, and it's simplistic to blame Bonnier. CW has lately made some interesting moves online(!) with the deal to essentially house the MotoAmerica website. And by bringing in Paul “The Vintagent” d’Orleans they may tap into his large online following. They've put an enormous archive up, too. Who knows, before this has all shaken out, Cycle World may be the place Wes can spend that hour.</span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0tdtAZpwdQM/VTFbis_iEzI/AAAAAAAAC2A/k1RWgifvJwA/s1600/surfersjournal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0tdtAZpwdQM/VTFbis_iEzI/AAAAAAAAC2A/k1RWgifvJwA/s1600/surfersjournal.jpg" height="320" width="262" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As a motojournalist, I fantasize about the motorcycle equivalent of The Surfer's Journal. It's uncompromising and yet profitable, not because of the size of its audience but rather because a handful of advertisers feel they <i>have</i> to be in there, and enough readers are willing to pay a premium for meaningful content. Ironically, I heard that just before the wheels fell off the moto-biz in 2008, Surfer's Journal was considering a moto mag. Sigh.</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the larger point we've been debating comes back to that unique, in-depth, expert, well-written, long-form content we're missing. One FB commenter cited an old Cycle story by Phil Schilling <a href="http://www.cycleworld.com/2012/06/13/from-the-cycle-archives-the-satisfied-mind/5/" target="_blank">(ironically, found on the CW web site!)</a> called “Satisfied Mind”. I followed that link, and cut-and-pasted all the copy from that story into a Word file to do a quick word count. It ran over 5,000 words. There isn’t 5,000 words of body copy in the entire feature well of a Cycle World issue today. If a journalist delivered a 5,000 word story, it would be tossed back with instructions to bring it in at 1,500.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And, if you wanted to make a living as a writer, you couldn’t write “Satisfied Mind” today anyway, because even if they would publish it, you couldn’t earn even minimum wage for the hours spent crafting it. In the time I’ve been writing for motorcycle magazines, I’ve seen my top pay for a feature story cut by about 60%.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Another irony is that the one place you could run a 5,000 word story is online. But if you built a blog with that content, would you draw enough traffic to make it profitable?</span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xSzf8nsHTrM/VTFfL0r63wI/AAAAAAAAC2M/KfsiZvC9dhg/s1600/Icarus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xSzf8nsHTrM/VTFfL0r63wI/AAAAAAAAC2M/KfsiZvC9dhg/s1600/Icarus.png" height="185" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeff Buchanan, one of the rare writers in the field of motorcycle journalism, so despaired of making a living as as a motojourno that he invented <a href="http://theplungeoficarus.com/" target="_blank">a whole new medium</a>. (I guess the message here is that ex-motorcycle journos are not very employable. Which I knew.)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I still say no. I believe you could (and some publishers are doing this) build a site that generated enough traffic to occasionally pay something for good content, and put it up as a public service for the far smaller audience that wants that stuff.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But that strategy relies on editors who feel that larger responsibility and publishers who'll tolerate it. So, thanks MO, for paying for John Burns. And thanks Motorcycle-USA for paying me; every time I send in a column, the thought crosses my mind that they'll call and tell me, "It's been great, but we've just realized that stories from Sturgis generate 15 times the 'likes' per dollar."</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Some corollary of Gresham's Law seems to apply even in my own book sales, which sell in perfectly inverse order to quality. Which is frustrating, but I'm philosophical about it; the financial value of anything (including writing) is simply what people agree to pay for it. There's no connection (unless it's inverse) between that and literary value.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At the end of the day, I'm still convinced that what Wes originally complained about was the lack of literary-quality motorcycle journalism online. By stating that problem and laying out his profitable motorcycle blog hack as a solution, he was implying that a blog of that material would be viable as a self-sustaining professional writing venture.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nope. Not true. And although I doubt this acrimonious debate will just fade away now, I'm moving on. There's nothing more to see here.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rSjK2Oqrgic" width="420"></iframe>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-19933968996071540552015-04-13T08:24:00.001-07:002015-04-13T10:29:34.390-07:00Is there really no more good motorcycle content? Part 3: Let's get serious.<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2015/04/is-there-really-no-more-good-motorcycle.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2015/04/is-there-really-no-more-good-motorcycle_11.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The thing that I found most irksome about </span><a href="http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/how-to-make-the-next-great-motorcycle-blog-1695705804" style="letter-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">“How To Make The Next Great Motorcycle Blog”</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> was a tone I associate with “The 4-Hour Work Week” and the countless life-hacking-for-Millennials blogs, books, etc., that Tim Ferriss spawned.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As far as I can tell, Wes has figured out a way to make a living as a blogger. (Full disclosure: I haven’t.) As an ad guy in day-to-day life, I’m as skeptical as anyone about the advertising model that he dismisses out of hand.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Every week, Ad Age or Adweek breaks another story about how half the online ads advertisers pay to place don’t ever get seen. While motorcycle journalism is still adapting to the changes imposed by the rise of web-based media, so is the ad industry which is also in free fall. I don’t think that any journalist or ad exec—their fates are intertwined—knows where this ends.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5AubVgWItB8/VSvc4H2Q2oI/AAAAAAAAC04/ClPpIRkZIyo/s1600/CNN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5AubVgWItB8/VSvc4H2Q2oI/AAAAAAAAC04/ClPpIRkZIyo/s1600/CNN.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>In spite of the fact that there are fat middle-aged dudes wearing Harley-Davidson T-shirts in every airport waiting lounge, if you walk into a U.S. airport newsstand and look at those racks offering hundreds of magazine titles, you'll find one motorcycle magazine. Two, tops. The reason I'm pointing this out is, out there in the larger culture, motorcycles aren't important. And, I believe this is especially true in the U.S., even the people who own and ride them really aren't interested in them, or at least not interested enough to read about them.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wes may be right when he implies that the ad sales model isn’t the way, in the long run. I suppose he is making OK money from the Amazon affiliate model. (That’s actually my model in a way too, because I justify the effort I put into this blog in part by the money I make selling my own books; those links to the right take you to Amazon.)&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But it’s not the only model. Although no one’s sharing their financials with me, I’m pretty sure that MO’s advertising revenue is enough to make that site profitable. I think that Asphalt &amp; Rubber is generating a decent income for&nbsp; Jensen Beeler. Personally, I think the motorcycle web site with the best business plan right now is Motorcycle-USA.com. It’s selling ad space, but it can use unsold ad inventory to promote other motorcycle businesses owned by the same group. I guess that’s what Revzilla’s up to, too.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I talk about the article’s “life hacker” tone, what I mean is blithe advice like, <i>“...</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>develop a comprehensive, multi-language RSS feed of all the editorial motorcycle sites out there. Do the same for the bigger forums, again making sure to include markets like Thailand, Germany, Italy, and the UK...”</i> and, just fly down to New Orleans and get drunk with J.T. Nesbitt, or <i>“Call up the engineers designing the stuff and ask them questions. Get access to their sketches and ideas and diagrams...”</i></span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The purpose of acquiring that great content, Wes says, is to get your blog up half a million unique visitors per month, at which point you can make a decent living off those Amazon affiliate revenues.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To me, this sounds like great advice for someone who actually doesn’t need an income, but terrible advice for someone who is trying to create self-employment. (Which is basically what he promised in HTMTNGMB.)&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You’ll spend a long time—years—building that kind of audience. And, while you’ve got that 0$ a month coming in, it’s not like you’re gonna’ have a day job. Because monitoring all the motorcycle news from all around the world is, already, a full-time job. And, while you’ve got that 0$ a month coming in, flying to New Orleans for one story’s gonna’ be hard on the old Visa balance. To say nothing of the fact that building that network of contacts among secretive engineers and race-team insiders—getting to that critical point where you can call someone for an off the record chat, and have them trust you—is not the work of a few months, either.</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But Wes’ hack-the-next-great-blog strategy really breaks down if you’re trying to create what he (I think)—and I (I know)—want to read. Because great stories are not a formula for the eyeballage you need, if you’re to earn $10k/month from affiliate revenues.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That content’s expensive to produce. There’s out-of-pocket travel and equipment costs, because (as he notes) the manufacturers aren’t going to start loaning you bikes, or flying you to launches and factory visits any time soon.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That kind of writing takes time, too. You can’t “hack” literature. It takes days to craft a really good 2,500 word story and weeks to write a 7,500 word treatise—and that’s after you’ve finished the ride, or completed the last interview, or turned the last wrench.</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In fact, great, long-form, original content will actually hamper—not help—you to reach Wes’ suggested target of 500,000 unique visitors a month. Because you know what? There aren’t half a million people who want to read great, insightful, in depth, original, thought-provoking motorcycle journalism. Not in the English language, anyway.</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And before you conclude that I’m just another angry Baby Boomer, longing for the glory days of Cycle, read just a little further.</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Maybe when you think of great motorcycle journalism, you remember Cook and Phil and Old Blue; or you think of an idealistic young David Edwards(there’s a thought!) convincing Hunter S. Thompson to write for Cycle World; or Dan Walsh going all Heart of Darkness in Bike Magazine.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If you bemoan those days and say, “There’s no good motorcycle content anymore”, I sympathize. But none of those stories was read by half a million people, even though they were published when media was far more concentrated, and before Twitter, etc., shattered attention spans. Bike Magazine—the best motorcycle magazine published in English in this century—has never had a circulation over 100,000.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So there’s no reason to think that if that’s what you mean by “good motorcycle content”, you could use it to attract half a million regular readers now. Aye, there’s the rub. Those magazines were places advertisers had to be, not because the pubs attracted hundreds of thousands of readers but because they attracted the right readers—key influencers, in advertising parlance. And so far, that’s not anyone’s online model.</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To reiterate: Great content will not attract 500,000 readers. It will, in fact, guarantee an audience about a tenth that size.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You want half a million readers? Put up a ton of crap. Even though the motorcycle audience is not that big in absolute terms, there’s a still a decent-sized audience for crap. And—in the defense of a the editors who are trying their best, especially in the online world—the revenues you generate by posting those OEM press releases and swallowing your pride when the publisher insists on a listicle-a-day… those compromises might buy you the freedom to invest in a great story once in a while.</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now, I’ve wasted a few days pondering this shit, and I’ve got to drop this topic for while and make some money. But I’m going to come back in a week or so with one final post addressing the state of the old media stalwarts, and the relationship between manufacturers and the enthusiast media.</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-27392711523614569492015-04-11T11:54:00.000-07:002015-04-11T13:59:32.198-07:00Is there really no more good motorcycle content? Part 2: Racing is boring.<div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><b>“Racing: Don’t bother, no one cares. And modern racers are perhaps the least interesting people in the entire world.”</b></i></span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—Wes Siler</b></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg9Us8k78nk/VSltvOlu6hI/AAAAAAAAC0g/MKcuFOy71ms/s1600/HTMTNGMB.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg9Us8k78nk/VSltvOlu6hI/AAAAAAAAC0g/MKcuFOy71ms/s1600/HTMTNGMB.png" height="320" width="299" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That’s just a throwaway line in “<a href="http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/how-to-make-the-next-great-motorcycle-blog-1695705804" target="_blank">How To Make The Next Great Motorcycle Blog</a>”, and it shouldn’t, by rights, be the first point I dig into in <a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2015/04/is-there-really-no-more-good-motorcycle.html" target="_blank">this series</a>, but I thought I’d try to post it while MotoGP is making a rare U.S. stop in Austin.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">RE: “...modern racers are perhaps the least interesting people in the entire world.” If he means top level GP and Superbike racers, I agree. It’s not an accident that I’m writing this from Kansas City, on a weekend when MotoGP and MotoAmerica are in Austin (“close by” at 750 miles away.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are a bunch of reasons for that. Top-tier racers have become sponsor-thanking robots; they’re starting much younger and reaching the top level at an age when they have no life experience or perspective to share; few MotoGP riders speak English as a first language, which is a problem for American journalists who generally speak only English. And if a journalist gets too curious, there’s the problem of controlled access. MotoAmerica lost one of the handful of racers who had a real personality before the season even started, when Dane Westby was killed in a streetbike crash in Tulsa. Bummer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So I get it, and I agree that I’d rather spend a weekend in KC—wondering if my grass seed’s ever going to sprout and finding the leak that leaves a tiny spot under my Vino every time I park it—than sitting in a MotoGP press conference, watching the race on TV in the media center, and trying to interpret Rossi’s mindset based on the glimpse I got of him scurrying out of his garage. The probability of me writing a good story with a unique angle is about the same in both locations, and staying home saves me a thousand bucks, all in.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It doesn’t necessarily follow that you shouldn’t bother or that no one cares.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xWiA82RKbBI/VSlrlDqM4iI/AAAAAAAAC0U/DC4FeARwtpY/s1600/Austin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xWiA82RKbBI/VSlrlDqM4iI/AAAAAAAAC0U/DC4FeARwtpY/s1600/Austin.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">CoTA, 2013: This guy cared enough to keep this T-shirt white for 20 years.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I did go to Austin for the first MotoGP race in 2013. I wanted to see whether fans were going to rise up in Kevin Schwantz’ defense; I was curious whether fans got good value for the price of their tickets; and frankly I was curious what it was like to attend a race as a punter, instead of a participant (at whatever level). I hadn’t bought a ticket and sat in the ‘stands for decades.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">CoTA drew a pretty impressive crowd and, unlike most journalists, I spent the whole weekend amongst that crowd. The racing itself was intense and impressive as shit, with lots of decent viewing even for those on lowly General Admission passes. The fans were happy and many were knowledgeable. There were lots of T-shirts from old GP/SBK/AMA weekends that I could tell were taken out and worn only on special occasions. And there was a really cool custom bike show downtown, along with a little bit of a sense that, for a few days at least, we were the cool kids.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So while it’s true that most American motorcyclists are ambivalent about racing, it’s not true that no one cares. And even working within the strictures of the MotoGP paddock, David Emmett, for example, manages to make a living putting up <a href="http://motomatters.com/" target="_blank">informative content</a>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All of that, though, was a preamble to get to this point: It’s true that top level racers are usually boring and uncooperative, and it’s true that most American motorcyclists think of top-level racing as, “A bunch of guys I’ve never heard of, doing a kind of riding that I don’t do.”&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That doesn’t mean all racing is boring, or that you can’t write racing stories that resonate with ordinary riders. Here’s how: Go race yourself; participating in even the shittiest, low-level club race is a more intense experience than watching MotoGP. You might tell a story of accessible racing that actually lures a street rider into a “new racer” school and by doing so, save someone’s life. Take up trials, or ice racing; those disciplines are accessible and will help you hone skills that transfer to the riding “real motorcyclists” do, however they choose to define it.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Go to Pikes Peak. You don’t even need a racing license to compete there. Or, go cover any "real roads" race in Ireland or on the Isle of Man; I admit they’ve tightened entry requirements at the TT so you can’t just show up and actually race there,<a href="http://amzn.com/0979167329" target="_blank"> the way I did</a>, but you can still get great access to a cast of characters who all have the gift of craic. <a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2013/07/bastille-day-blues.html" target="_blank">The best racing story I've ever personally written</a>, was written about a race open to rank amateurs.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Or, go cover a Grand National flat track race; that paddock’s full of unguarded characters; it’s easy to get a press credential and once you’re in, you’re in. I’ve had racers invite me into their campers and offer to share their lunch with me. I’ve never met a GNC racer who didn’t volunteer his (or her) email address and phone number when I asked for it, and they all answer and speak freely. It doesn’t matter that the grandstands are full of Duck Dynasty reject, Murica-love-it-or-leave-it Neanderthals*, because the pits are full of the best kind of Americans. It’s no accident that motorcycle racers around the world hold their manhoods cheap, whilst any speaks who's made a GNC Main.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, Wes,&nbsp;</span>“Racing: Don’t bother, no one cares. And modern racers are perhaps the least interesting people in the entire world"? I know what you mean, and you're right.<br /><br />But you're also wrong.<br /><div style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div><div style="font-size: 12px;"><i>*And yes, I realize that's an insult to Neanderthals.</i></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"><i><br /></i></div><b>UPDATE </b>After I posted this, Jim McDermott (who is one of the part time motorcycle journalists who definitely does post content worth reading, by the way) noted, "Don't blame the riders, it's the sponsors' fault they're boring."<br /><br />Now, I wasn't going to digress this far, but since Jim's opened that door… Years ago, when the Red Bull Rookies Cup had just started in the U.S., Red Bull invited Road Racer X Magazine to attend a session and try one of the bikes, with the first crop of young rookies. Chris Jonnum sent me to Barber, where I spent a day watching the young rookies practice and, incidentally, get trained in "media relations" by some guy that Red Bull had brought in for that exact purpose.<br /><br />The first irony of this was, Red Bull had invited journalists to come and watch them train young racers to be the kind of interviewees that journalists <i>hate</i>. The second irony was that the main coach/figurehead of the U.S. 'Rookies' program was Kevin Schwantz, who became one of the most-loved American racers precisely because he <i>wasn't</i> that guy.<br /><br />So, yes Jim, you're right to point out that much of the responsibility for this lies with sponsors. And I won't argue that money's the root of this particular evil. I can't, because all the "good" racing that I cite is, essentially, amateur stuff.</div></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-35891269800237337262015-04-10T10:54:00.000-07:002015-04-10T12:07:52.491-07:00Is there really no more good motorcycle content? Part 1...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yWB8MNSiIoc/VSgKvMjWAlI/AAAAAAAACzs/FWhgOvQ8y18/s1600/HTMTNGMB.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yWB8MNSiIoc/VSgKvMjWAlI/AAAAAAAACzs/FWhgOvQ8y18/s1600/HTMTNGMB.png" height="320" width="299" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Last week a friend of mine forwarded a link to <a href="http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/how-to-make-the-next-great-motorcycle-blog-1695705804" target="_blank">a story on Gizmodo</a> entitled, "How To Make The Next Great Motorcycle Blog". That story’s been read by quite a few people, I surmise, because a.) my friend doesn’t even ride motorcycles, and b.) the story contains a link to <a href="http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/why-no-one-will-sell-you-the-bike-you-want-1641411378" target="_blank">a story</a> that, in turn, contains a link to <a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2014/06/harley-davidsons-ev-announcement.html" target="_blank">a story here on Bikewriter.com</a>. And that third-order link has led to a measurable uptick in my traffic in the last week.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Phew. Pretty complicated thought there. Hope you’re still with me. Anyway, the story that started all this, which I’ll call HTMTNGMB was written by Wes Siler.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Siler’s credentials are, he created a blog called Hell for Leather, which was almost as good as its name. H4L sadly morphed into one called RideApart, which is almost as crappy as <i>that</i> name.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He launched into his piece with a provocative statement, "There's no good motorcycle content anymore." That was bound to rile a few of the people who make a living (or, as in my case, part of a living) putting up motorcycle content. And, when he followed it up with a somewhat self-aggrandizing "That's partly my fault", it was a cue for some eye-rolls amongst motorcycle journalists.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At least he didn't say, "It's all my fault."&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Before I agree with some of what Wes has to say, I am going to disabuse you of something he wrote in order to establish his <i>bona fides</i>. In HTMTNGMB, he claims that he "...grew [H4L/RA] into the most widely read motorcycle website in just a few years."&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Maybe he's basing his claim that H4L was the most widely read blog on his estimate that "the biggest scoop of the year" on other sites is lucky to pull in 10,000 viewers.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I've written for both MO and (recently and regularly) <a href="http://motorcycle-usa.com/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Motorcycle-USA.com</span></a>. I think both those sites always drew a lot more readers than Hell for Leather. While I informally track 'likes' on my own posts and, otherwise, kind'a want to stay out of their business, I’d say that for either MO or MC-USA, a post seen by 10,000 viewers <i>a day</i> is solid but not record-breaking.&nbsp;</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z_oVHDIJoCM/VSgNATpX-kI/AAAAAAAACz8/w6nUJkAuUDM/s1600/yzf-r1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z_oVHDIJoCM/VSgNATpX-kI/AAAAAAAACz8/w6nUJkAuUDM/s1600/yzf-r1.png" height="275" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">To put Siler’s audience estimates in perspective, Motorcycle USA’s video review of the new YZF-R1 has been watched over 200,000 times in the last six weeks, according to YouTube. Asphalt &amp; Rubber claims to have built it’s audience up to 650,000 unique viewers a month.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That said, Hell for Leather was—in its heyday—one of the sites that I checked daily. Wes put up some decent content, and I'd be very interested to read a follow-on post from him about how H4L, which started out as a bit of a prodigy, ended up as RideApart, a purveyor of shitty clickbait listicles. In the meantime, if I'm going to be upset by a little hubris, or a post that plays fast and loose with facts, I need to get off the Interweb.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That's most of my Wes-bashing, done. His post raises some interesting points. Over the next week or two, I hope to find time to address some of them in two or three follow-on posts.</span></div><ul><li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Is there really no interesting content?</span></li><li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Is that the fault of "old media" brands like Motorcyclist and Cycle World?</span></li><li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Would it really be easy to make $10k/mo as a motorcycle blogger?</span></li></ul><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Check back in, why don’t you?</span></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-68591318146952611032015-04-03T10:10:00.000-07:002015-04-04T09:45:18.159-07:00Monday Morning Crew Chief, Friday edition: All about arm pump<span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>UPDATE:</b>&nbsp;After I posted this, my FB friend Mick Fialkowski informed me that&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.3;">Julián Simón&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">had the same surgery by the same doctor, back in 2009, and that he's "as good as new" today. He warned me not to write Pedrosa off. &nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Simón won the last 125cc GP title in '09, and came close to winning the first Moto2 title in '10. He may indeed be as good as new, although he's now a 10th-place runner in Moto2, happy&nbsp;with a few points per race. He never showed his dominant 2009 form again, perhaps because he was physically incapable of running right at the front on the heavier Moto2 machines.</span><br /><br />The MotoGP opener had more than one race's worth of drama; it's a shame no one saw it live, eh?<br /><br />Post-race, it emerged that Pedrosa's arm-pump issues remain rate-limiting. Since all the usual surgical solutions have been tried, he's now in the same "let's-just-try-throwing-out-this-one-small-part-maybe-we-don't-need-it" club that Nicky Hayden's in. In Nicky's case it was a few small bones in his wrist; there are so many in there, could they all have a purpose? Surely those are just vestigial/disposable, like your tonsils or appendix. In Pedrosa's case, it was "dissecting and removing" the fascia (a tough, fibrous wrapping) around the muscles of his forearm.<br /><br />Fascia are made of collagen and engineered to stretch primarily in one direction. They allow for some expansion of muscles as blood flows in when the muscle's exercising. But, once they're stretched to the limit, they can restrict additional blood flow. Hence, 'arm pump', which sports physiologists more accurately label, Chronic Compartment Syndrome.<br /><br />Viz, Wikipedia:<br /><h3 style="background-color: white; background-image: none; border-bottom-style: none; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Chronic_compartment_syndrome">Chronic compartment syndrome</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; display: inline-block; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; margin-left: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color: #555555; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Compartment_syndrome&amp;action=edit&amp;section=6" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Edit section: Chronic compartment syndrome">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color: #555555; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h3><blockquote>When compartment syndrome is caused by repetitive use of the muscles, as in a cyclist, it is known as chronic compartment syndrome (CCS).<br />When compartment syndrome is caused by repetitive use of the muscles, as in a cyclist, it is known as chronic compartment syndrome (CCS).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-pmid18063715_10-0" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartment_syndrome#cite_note-pmid18063715-10" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[10]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-pmid17992173_11-0" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartment_syndrome#cite_note-pmid17992173-11" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[11]</a></sup>&nbsp;This is usually not an emergency, but the loss of circulation can cause temporary or permanent damage to nearby nerves and muscles. The cause of compartment syndrome is due to excess pressure on or within the muscle compartments. This pressure can occur for many different reasons, many are due to injuries. Injuries cause the swelling of tissue. The swelling of the tissue forces pressure upon the muscle compartments, which has a limited volume. Due to this pressure, the venules and lymphatic vessels that drain the muscle compartments are compressed, and are prevented from draining. As arterial inflow continues while outflow is decreased, the pressure builds up in the muscle compartments. This pressure will eventually decrease the amount of blood flow over the capillary bed, causing the tissue to become ischaemic. The tissues will release factors and will lead to the formation of edema.</blockquote><div>'Ischaemic' means, oxygen-starved.</div><div><br /></div><div>The normal treatment for this, which Pedrosa's already undergone, is a fasciotomy. You can look that up on Wikipedia, too, but I don't recommend looking at the pictures before lunch. The more radical approach that Pedrosa and his Spanish physician just tried, was essentially removing the fascia.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yuck.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, what remains to be learned is, essentially, was Pedrosa's fascia actually doing anything useful, before arm pump set in?&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Because motorcycle racing is very, very hard on your right forearm, which is tightly packed with the muscles required to flex/extend/stabilize your wrist under acceleration and braking, clench your fingers as while gripping the throttle and braking. If that fascia is an essential piece of that biological machine; if that part of your body's not working, that's your career as a MotoGP rider, done.</div><div><br /></div><div>The upside to this is that there's increasingly talk of getting rid of brolly dollies in MotoGP. Pedrosa, tiny, perfect, and often pouting, will make a perfect umbrella boy.</div><div><br /></div><div>But seriously, folks… I'm sure that Honda's done everything they can, to the motorcycle, to minimize stress on Pedrosa's arm. But the consensus among sports physiologists is that while different athletes have a different tolerance for the kinds of stresses that lead to arm pump, each person's response is consistent. That's why Pedrosa chose that dramatic, last-ditch surgical solution: because he knew that if his arm pump came back once, it would keep coming back.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the way, it's happened to me. Not only does it hurt like hell and result in a dramatic decrease in fine motor control, I found myself wondering, Will the next braking zone be the one where I attempt to squeeze the brake and nothing happens? Or will I get to the turn-in point, wrench on the bars, and have my hand just fall off the grip? It was fucking scary, and I raced at half-speed, compared to Pedrosa.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pedrosa's not the only high-level racer whose results and career have been limited by the problem, but I don't remember anyone else going to such surgical extremes to resolve it. For the record, I admit that &nbsp;last year, when Nicky had his wrist surgery, I predicted it would be the end of his career. I was wrong; Nicky's letting his heart rule over his head again.<br /><br />That won't prevent me telling you that this will be the last year for Pedrosa. Mainly because I don't think that he'll be willing to circulate at the back of the grid, clawing for a point here and there. Although years on shit bikes beat him down, Nicky fundamentally loves the riding. That's not something Pedrosa ever really projects; I don't think he's a guy who will ride for the sake of riding. (Marquez would, though.)<br /><br />What I wish I knew was, has Honda tried to datalog Pedrosa vs. Marquez, specifically looking at the rider inputs, not their bikes' responses? David Emmett, any insight here? Obviously, they're capturing brake pressures and turn-in rates, but what about other factors, such as grip pressure?<br /><br />I am sure that Pedrosa's sure he's tried everything in terms of adjusting his riding style, but in the absence of data, even he's just speculating. It's entirely possible his problem's physiological, not behavioral; I suppose he may have to work his tiny, Tyrannosaurus arms extra hard because he's too small for his body inputs to have much influence. (Yes, Keith Code, I am aware that body inputs have no influence. Whatever.)<br /><br />Logging total rider effort/input in a scientific way would be a great project for someone like Dainese.<br /><br />By the way… There was a little bit of "draft Nicky" chatter when it emerged that Pedrosa wouldn't race Austin. With the Aspar team sponsorship in shambles, and as a contracted Honda rider, the idea of putting an American on the factory bike in Austin seems like a no-brainer. I don't know exactly why it didn't happen, but I wonder whether Nicky himself even wanted it. Why submit yourself to an apples-to-apples comparison with Marquez? It's a recipe for embarrassment.&nbsp;</div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-58519551394857444022015-03-28T11:44:00.001-07:002015-03-28T12:12:14.071-07:00Local TV, for once, gets a motorcycle fatality rightIn the days after Dane Westby's untimely death, local Tulsa television showed conspicuous care and judgement in the way they covered the story. That included balanced, sensitive, and non-sensational coverage of his funeral.<br /><br /><script src="http://KOTV.images.worldnow.com/interface/js/WNVideo.js?rnd=454265;hostDomain=www.newson6.com;playerWidth=500;playerHeight=300;isShowIcon=true;clipId=11287135;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlay;galleryType=wnstory;galleryId=28635591" type="text/javascript"></script><a href="http://www.newson6.com/" title="NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com | ">NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com | </a> <br />I don't know whether credit for this should go to News on 6 news director (I believe that's Scott Thompson, a much awarded, very experienced journalist) or whether it reflects the fact that the Westby family is long-established and respected in the community—there's a 'Westby Hall' at University of Tulsa.<br /><br />Whatever the reason, though, I was pleased to see such respectful coverage of an event that would usually have been reported with a macabre, schadenfreude-laden "<i>another</i> motorcycle death" spin.<br /><br />So thanks, News on 6.<br /><br />Although I didn't know him, I'd say his death is a large loss to the nascent MotoAmerica series. Not only was he fast and destined for on-track stardom, but he was real person—not a characterless sponsor-thanking robot, raised from birth to be a racer with no other life experience. As such, he was the kind of guy who could appeal to a new generation of fans, who take an ironic view of sponsorship and value authenticity.<br /><br />There's still no explanation for Westby's street bike crash. It happened on a commercial strip, and there would surely have been witnesses, if he'd been riding like an asshole. So, I think it's safe to assume he was riding responsibly. But something happened, he ended up running up on a curb and hitting a pole.<br /><br />If there's a lesson in this, it's a lesson for the most&nbsp;<i>skilled</i> street riders who feel that the rest of the motorcycling public desperately need better machine control skills.<br /><br />The skilled guys, rightly, point out that almost every motorcycle crash—especially single-vehicle crashes, as Westby's may have been—could be avoided if only the (usually) newb/drunk/reckless rider had been able to brake harder or change direction faster. The skilled guys, who are racers and track-day riders, who train on dirt bikes, etc., often derive a sense of security from the knowledge that they're in the skilled minority.<br /><br />The lesson is: Even Dane Westby—a national-caliber racer at the height of his powers—got into a situation that he couldn't ride out of. If it can happen to him, it can happen to you.<br /><br />It's spring. In the midwest and across the northern tier, car drivers who don't see us at the best of times are now unused to seeing us at all. And the sides of the road are still covered with gravel, salt dust, and a winter's worth of detritus. You're almost certainly a little rusty, too. If you have to take evasive action out of the main travel lane, there's a good chance you will not be able to make that second change of direction that will keep you on the road.<br /><br />So pay extra attention and increase your following distance. Because if you kill yourself, your local TV station won't pay you the same respect.<br /><br />Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-65466232811532245122015-03-08T09:03:00.000-07:002015-03-08T09:03:45.640-07:00Lane-splitting in the mainstream? Here's a two-step program to get those laws passedThe <a href="http://www.wsj.com/article_email/motorcycle-lane-splitting-could-move-beyond-california-1425678764-lMyQjAxMTE1NjAxNzQwMzc2Wj" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a> recently ran a neutral-to-pro-motorcycle story about lane splitting, noting that several states are at least considering legislation that would make it legal for motorcyclists to travel between lanes of stopped or slow-moving cars (at least, when certain conditions are met.) That would actually give lane splitting a status it doesn't have in California, where I believe it's merely "not illegal", as opposed to specifically permitted by statute.<br /><br />Duh! In most European countries, you have to prove you can competently "filter" (aka lane split) in order to get a motorcycle license.<br /><br />The ability to keep moving when cars are stuck in stop-and-go traffic is the killer app for motorcycles and motorcycle sales. And the motorcycle lobby (as fractured as it is) has finally done a decent job of convincing legislators across the U.S. that it can be done "safely". The challenge is that a significant number of drivers (read: most voters) are still against it.<br /><br />When surveyed, uninformed drivers cite "danger" as the reason they're opposed. They also claim they're frequently startled by motorcycle traveling between lanes (solution: pay attention) and, less frequently, claim it's unfair that motorcycles can get through stalled traffic when cars can't.<br /><br />In my work in the ad industry, I've organized many consumer surveys, and I can tell you that even anonymous respondents tell interviewers what they think is the best answer, not necessarily what they really feel.<br /><br />The primary opposition to lane splitting is that rarely-mentioned issue of fairness, or its corollary, cage-drivers' territoriality. <i>So if the people lobbying for lane splitting want laws to pass, the argument they need to make is, allowing motorcycles to filter helps <b>everyone</b> get to where they're going faster</i>.<br /><br />Every vehicle that moves out of the traffic column (and into the interstitial space between lanes) speeds the flow of the column, not just the flow of motorcycles. And traffic engineers can prove that sometimes even changing the number of cars/hour by a few percent can make the difference between flowing and stop-and-go traffic patterns. By allowing lane splitting, legislators will<br /><br /><ul><li>improve traffic flows for cars, as well as motorcycles</li><li>improve the economy and sales tax revenues by encouraging motorcycle sales</li><li>increase the number of commuters who choose motorcycles</li><li>free up parking spaces</li><li>reduce the production of CO2 and hence, reduce global warming</li></ul><br /><br />To recap: the way you get lane splitting laws passed is, by making it clear that <i>lane splitting will improve traffic &nbsp;and parking congestion for <b>cars</b>.</i><br /><br />As for safety, you can easily protect motorcyclists in the long term by writing a proviso into laws that lane spitting is only legal when motorcyclists wear helmets, and by specifying that if states with mandatory helmet laws repeal those laws, that the right to lane split is automatically also repealed.<br /><br /><br />Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-63876253410353476672015-03-06T12:23:00.002-08:002015-03-06T12:23:38.219-08:00Friction between "AMA" and "AMA Pro Racing"<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The other day, DMG-slash-AMA Pro Racing—in the guise of Fan's Choice—issued a press release saying that as part of the run up to the season opening GNC short track races down in Daytona, they'd broadcast the "<span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">DAYTONA Flat Track Amateur Championship".</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bclMYiOxfxQ/VPoMf-pqOQI/AAAAAAAACx4/U5r7jPd9dJM/s1600/AMAProRelease.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bclMYiOxfxQ/VPoMf-pqOQI/AAAAAAAACx4/U5r7jPd9dJM/s1600/AMAProRelease.png" height="286" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #484848;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">When that phrase showed up on my monitor, I thought, Hmm</span><span style="line-height: 21px;">…</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">&nbsp;it's a little early in the&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 21px;">season for the Amateur Championship. But, I chalked it up to promoter hubris. After all, although the press release put the amateur races in the context of the AMA Pro Racing season opener, the claim was only that it was the 'Daytona' championship, not an AMA or national championship.</span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #484848; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">But within a day, the AMA issued a pissy clarification.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #484848; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through the purchase of specific professional racing assets from the AMA in 2008, the Daytona Motorsports Group acquired the right to use the AMA Pro Racing name in conjunction with specific professional motorcycle racing disciplines.&nbsp;</span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425672265241_2354" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daytona Motorsports Group</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'s use of the d/b/a "AMA Pro Racing" frequently causes confusion between&nbsp;</span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425672265241_2355" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daytona Motorsports Group</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">&nbsp;and the AMA, the not-for-profit 91-year-old membership association and sanctioning body.&nbsp;</span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425672265241_2356" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daytona Motorsports Group</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">&nbsp;is an independent for-profit company and is not governed by the AMA.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daytona Motorsports Group</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'s issuance of a statement as AMA Pro Racing stating that an amateur flat track event held just prior to a professional flat track event they are promoting conveys the apparent authority to grant amateur championship status.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daytona Motorsports Group</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">&nbsp;has no authority over any amateur racing activity, nor does it have the authority to designate an event an amateur championship.</span></blockquote><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I can't say that I can remember any recent incidence of such a detailed, passive-aggressive clarification of the admittedly confusing AMA-has-nothing-to-do-with-AMA-Pro-Racing arrangement. And, I was surprised when AMA Pro didn't immediately pull down the release or issue a retraction of its own.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Expect more of this kind of thing, now that the AMA is back in the pro racing sanctioning business, courtesy of MotoAmerica. Don't be mislead by the fact that MotoAmerica is asphalt-only (for now) and AMA Pro Racing is dirt only; the two are competitors for fans, sponsors, and status. And although we're all told in no uncertain terms that the deal for the Daytona 200 has nothing to do with DMG/AMA Pro, the people who own the Speedway control DMG. You can be sure this year's '200' is a burr under the MotoAmerica saddle.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One thing DMG should do, to eliminate this confusion, is drop 'AMA Pro Racing', which is a less-than-worthless trademark anyway, considering the bad memories associated with it. The only flat track trademark worth anything is 'Grand National Championship'.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The GNC is the real American motorcycle racing championship, and DMG needs to firmly re-establish it, if it's to have any hope of maintaining or improving its status. Those aren't footsteps DMG hears behind them, that's the sound of MotoAmerica's engines warming up.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b6yoBVuVL_4/VPoME5myLxI/AAAAAAAACxw/UTmTvRnU998/s1600/funnyUpictureUanimalsUdogsUpeeUpole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b6yoBVuVL_4/VPoME5myLxI/AAAAAAAACxw/UTmTvRnU998/s1600/funnyUpictureUanimalsUdogsUpeeUpole.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-34149512876595964222015-02-18T15:54:00.002-08:002015-02-18T15:54:49.172-08:00#1 with a Bullet: Enfield shoots past Harley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2AJ7Jtizqbk/VOUmFqzrSxI/AAAAAAAACwg/yeRYssQYcUo/s1600/india.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2AJ7Jtizqbk/VOUmFqzrSxI/AAAAAAAACwg/yeRYssQYcUo/s1600/india.jpg" height="173" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lot of people in India want to get on a new Royal Enfield.</td></tr></tbody></table>According to Forbes Asia, Royal Enfield has outsold Harley-Davidson for the first time. Figures for 2014 suggest that Enfield sold over 300,000 bikes, compared to about 270,000 for Harley.<br /><br />Harley's net income is still about twice Enfield's, mainly because the cheapest Harley's about twice the price of the most expensive Enfield. But, Enfield's passing Harley in the number of units sold does illustrate the fact that in the developing world in general (and India in particular) more and more people can afford motorcycles. By contrast, it seems that fewer and fewer people can afford them here in the U.S.<br /><br />Harley's response has been to produce the Street 750 and 500 models, which are 'world' bikes—they don't expect to sell many of them in the domestic market. But even a 'cheap' Harley is expensive by developing-world standards. A new Street 500 in India will set the buyer back about Rs. 400,000. That puts it well into the range of new cars in India. What that means is that even in places where motorcycles are purchased as functional transportation, even the cheapest Harley will be sold to people choosing it for a reasons that have little to do with functionality.<br /><br />The Forbes story reminded me that Enfield's a subsidiary of Eicher Motors, a company that manufactures and sells Volvo heavy trucks and buses in the Indian market. Eicher's also got a joint venture with Polaris, which in a roundabout way means that Indian (as in 'brand') is now a cousin of the most famous Indian (as in 'subcontinent') motorcycles.Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-53694218807216843342015-01-27T10:49:00.000-08:002015-01-27T16:51:27.550-08:00There will be motorcycles in Super Bowl ads. There just won't be any ads for motorcycles, and that sucksAs the Super Bowl approaches, TV advertising becomes a topic of conversation because ordinary consumers recognize that it is the ad industry's "big game" too.<br /><br />For years, Master Lock—a small company, compared to most Super Bowl advertisers—dared to blow their entire annual media budget on a single commercial in the game. It was always the same basic spot; a guy shoots a bullet clean through a Master padlock with a high-powered rifle, but the lock holds. That advertising strategy helped Master build a solid brand in that category, and it was proof that taking an expensive risk—because Super Bowl spots are very, very expensive—also delivered a big reward in terms of customer awareness and recall.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-HvOhO8f0wc" width="420"></iframe> <br /><br />Every year, I bemoan the fact that no motorcycle manufacturer has the balls to run an ad in the big game—the kind of ad that would reach a wide audience with the goal of not just selling a bunch of bikes, but selling the very idea of motorcycling. Surely it's not that the sport of motorcycling doesn't lend itself to advertising. If you can make a great TV ad about a padlock, you sure as hell could make one about a motorcycle.<br /><br />I've already written about <a href="http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/2011/12/advertising-makes-it-happen-now-whos.html" target="_blank">Honda's famous 1964 "Nicest People" campaign</a>. That campaign broke during the Academy Awards telecast, which was the most valuable ad time in the world, at that time. (The first Super Bowl was still three years in the future, and it would be some time before the NFL grew into the commercial behemoth it is now.)<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9FJVp8daOyQ/VMfb1hCoF2I/AAAAAAAACv4/DjN38DJI0lM/s1600/pho_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9FJVp8daOyQ/VMfb1hCoF2I/AAAAAAAACv4/DjN38DJI0lM/s1600/pho_01.jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Honda hired Grey Advertising—a top ad agency in the 1960s. One of the problems with motorcycle advertising today is that manufacturers have chosen to work with agencies which are not in advertising's big leagues. The one notable exception was Harley-Davidson, but even they dropped Carmichael-Lynch after years of excellent creative.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />In 1964, Honda spent $300,000 on its Academy Award ad buy. Corrected for inflation, that's about $2,500,000 in today's money. So not quite in present-day Super Bowl ad territory—the nominal cost for a 30-second spot in Super Bowl XLIX is about four million bucks.<br /><br />But look at it this way: $300,000 was the equivalent of Honda's gross revenues on 1,200 units of its best-selling motorcycle.<br /><br />I don't know what American Honda's best seller is today, but whatever it is, I bet that if the company was willing to spend 1,200 times that revenue, it could afford a spot in Sunday's game. Obviously, the people running the company today are playing with deflated balls, compared to the guys calling Honda's plays in 1964.<br /><br />Ironically, I also bet that more than one ad will feature a motorcycle cameo. All kinds of other brands include motorcycles in their spots these days, because they know motorcycles are hip and all-round awesome. Think about that: the guys making those other brands' ads are using valuable screen time to show you motorcycles they don't even sell, just to make whatever they <i>are</i> selling more appealing. Imagine how excited those Creative Directors, Copywriters, and Art Directors would be, if they were ever given the chance to <i>advertise</i> a motorcycle.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NX2cwCLDLJM/VMffiWablcI/AAAAAAAACwE/2zX6g-wEPWY/s1600/womens-motorcycle-exhibit-venice-vixens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NX2cwCLDLJM/VMffiWablcI/AAAAAAAACwE/2zX6g-wEPWY/s1600/womens-motorcycle-exhibit-venice-vixens.jpg" height="315" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You know that cool ad agencies are full of hipsters who already commute to work on caféd-out CB350s and chopped Ruckuses. Or is the plural of Ruckus, 'Rucki'?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Irony #2: Loctite is advertising in this year's Super Bowl. Yes, Loctite. They sell those little tiny bottles of goo, that you put on your nuts, before screwing.<br /><br />Sorry, that was a cheap shot, but I couldn't resist it. But seriously folks. Loctite dares to risk an obviosly huge chunk of its marketing budget, promoting a product—shit, a <i>category</i>—that most Super Bowl viewers don't even know exists.<br /><br />You know who <i>does</i> know what Loctite is? Everyone who works in the motorcycle industry. I hope they're paying attention to Loctite's sales numbers and awareness over the next year.Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-60357815994935592972015-01-21T12:54:00.001-08:002015-01-21T15:39:20.806-08:00AMA Pro Racing's bullshit logo competition<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">AMA Pro Racing recently announced that it was opening up the creation of new logos for it’s two classes, renamed GNC1 and GNC2, up to anyone who wants to enter a design competition and submit their ideas. First prize? $275. Let’s call it a maximum of 10% of the value of that job, if it was performed by a professional branding consultant.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Essentially, AMA Pro Racing is trying to get a new logo (actually a pair of logos) for free.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I hate that. As a guy who makes (most of) my living in the world of advertising and communications strategy, the decision to open this assignment up to amateurs pretty much had to piss me off, but it’s not just me. Google the phrase “graphic designers work for free” and you’ll see that it’s a raw nerve for the whole ad &amp; design world.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BIsF63ul3Mk/VMARU0StL7I/AAAAAAAACvY/Cs8Em7spIsE/s1600/workforfree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BIsF63ul3Mk/VMARU0StL7I/AAAAAAAACvY/Cs8Em7spIsE/s1600/workforfree.jpg" height="177" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I suppose at one level, the logo should be semi-pro at best; after all, only a handful of GNC riders are truly professional in the sense that they earn all or most of a decent living from their racing. But going about it the way they have is stupid, for the following reasons:</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1.) They’ve asked for logos for two classes, and not for what they need, which is new identity for the Grand National Championship, which can anchor a revitalized marketing strategy, and a national ad campaign for the entire series. The GNC has not spent the last few decades being held back by the names or logos associated with the specific classes.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2.) Besides the fact that AMA Pro Racing’s taken a cheap-ass and unstrategic approach to this assignment, <a href="http://logotournament.com/contests/ama_pro_racing" target="_blank">using Logotournament.com</a> turns the selection process into straight up, first-impression beauty contest. That’s something that pros in my industry despise. Logos don’t work that way at all. Meaning is imbued over many, many impressions, so professional logo designs need to be presented with an underlying rationale. Clients should see examples of all the ways the logo will be used.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OwMbtAFpdSI/VMAO9C6ityI/AAAAAAAACvM/es7p-D0_BlY/s1600/AMA%2BLogos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OwMbtAFpdSI/VMAO9C6ityI/AAAAAAAACvM/es7p-D0_BlY/s1600/AMA%2BLogos.jpg" height="154" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3.) Any creative assignment is only as good as the brief the creative team gets. The brief presented to the contestants was pathetic, which is why the results are almost completely generic wordmarks. Most of them look like the logos for nutritional supplements. Only one of the top five has a motorcycle on it; look at the bike. Look at the front wheel. It’s understeering for fuck’s sake. It’s the opposite of what flat track’s all about.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Over the course of my career, I’ve had countless conversations with clients who want a new logo. One of the questions I ask is, What logos do you love? Almost everyone says ‘Nike’. Nike’s logo is actually pretty crappy. Apple’s? It’s maybe a ‘B’ effort. My point in telling you this is, many great category-defining, commercially successful businesses have mediocre logotypes.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So in theory at least, AMA Pro Racing could use any shitty logo they get for their $275, and still take flat track back to the heights of the early ‘80s. The reason they won’t is, their whole approach to this logo assignment confirms the fact that they’re fucking amateurs when it comes to building a real brand, or marketing, well, anything.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here’s an analogy for the benefit of the flat track community...</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Imagine if, instead of proving your merit and earning an expert license, every Grand National race was open to all comers, on any bike. Hundreds of riders could show up, vying for 18 starting positions. Now imagine that those starting spots were assigned by holding 18 heat races. Winners go the final, all others go home. Now imagine this: Every heat race is <i>one lap</i>.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Would that format be exciting? Maybe. Action filled? I guess so. But would you be able to say with conviction that, at the end of the night, the best man’d won? Not usually.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That’s how AMA Pro Racing’s approaching logo design.</span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><b>UPDATE</b><br /><b><br /></b><b>I went back to look at AMA Pro's web site, and searched for the FB post that initially alerted me to the contest, and all references to the logo contest have been deleted. So it's possible AMA Pro's had second thoughts about the contest. That doesn't change the fact that embarking on it was a completely amateur move. Trying the contest in the first place is excellent evidence that, in spite of the fact that American flat track should be a major racing brand, it's being controlled by people with no marketing savvy.</b></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-57365512820159740252015-01-16T09:37:00.000-08:002015-01-16T14:25:29.623-08:00Polaris acts on Empulse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x80JZHtC3_4/VLlMUnxWUBI/AAAAAAAACuk/ZFZIFzOh2Qg/s1600/Empulse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x80JZHtC3_4/VLlMUnxWUBI/AAAAAAAACuk/ZFZIFzOh2Qg/s1600/Empulse.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>Polaris made an investment in Brammo back in 2011 and upped their stake again 2012. Now, they've acquired the rest of Craig Bramscher's motorcycle business. I haven't spotted the amount they recently spent; I may not find that out until their next Annual Report. But the first two investments were (IIRC) $11M and $28M.<br /><br />It begs a few interesting questions:<br /><br /><ul><li>What motivated Bramscher to sell out once and for all? Is it significant that Polaris' press release makes no mention of Craig's continued involvement?</li><li>Polaris says it will begin making electric motorcycles in Spirt Lake IA, this year.&nbsp;Does that mean Brammo's existing operations will move from Oregon to the midwest?&nbsp;Will the bikes made in Spirt Lake be Brammo models, or is there an electric Indian in the works?&nbsp;</li><li>Was Polaris influenced by Harley-Davidson's impressive LiveWire foray into electric motorcycles? If so, should Craig should send a box of chocolates to Milwaukee?</li><li>Is there any significance to the fact that, like Mission, Brammo's evolved from an electric motorcycle company to an electric powertrain company?</li></ul><br />Back in the early days of Brammo, Zero, and Mission I visited all those companies and found that they were staffed with the expected engineers and nerds, and that they all had a few serious riders on board. But they didn't have motorcycle designers. Mission solved that problem by outsourcing that role to the iconoclastic genius James Parker.<br /><br />When it created the LiveWire, Harley went the other way; they had motorcycle design capability in house and brought in powertrain expertise (from Mission).<br /><br />The fact is, while there are a number of good engineering schools where you can go to learn how to make a decent car from scratch, motorcycle vehicle dynamics are more complex, and there are far fewer places you can go to study motorcycle engineering (as distinct from styling). I was always struck by the lack of serious brand-building, sales channel development, and marketing expertise in those upstart companies, too.<br /><br />I always walked out thinking, They say "What you don't know won't hurt you", but if you don't know what you don't know, that can be deadly.<br /><br />So it makes sense that two of those three companies have now shifted their focus to supplying other builders with batteries, motor controllers, and motors; that's what they know.<br /><br />Polaris' product mix offers a ton of EV potential; far more than Harley-Davidson's does. The basic shape of a quad, snowmobile, or 'Slingshot' lends itself to heavy, flat battery deck carried in the bottom of the chassis. That's way better than trying to swing a great big battery pack from side to side in the turns.<br /><br />Just the other day, I found myself thinking, I've let it go too long between lunches with Harry 'Brammofan' Mallin. I'll pick his brain and get back to you.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-32844303026994933232014-12-15T18:00:00.003-08:002014-12-18T08:47:13.767-08:00Did American flat track gain, or lose, prestige last weekend?<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Last year, when Marc Marquez pretty much single-handedly resurrected the Superprestigio as a short track race, I pressured him to include Brad Baker, who was then the Grand National Championship #1 plate holder.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When the organizers relented and invited Baker, they at first wanted to create a siamesed event, where World Championship road racers competed in their own race, and outsiders never raced against them. Marquez himself insisted that at the end of the night, the best of the Grand Prix boys would face off against the best short trackers from Europe, along with Baker.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Baker won, to no one’s real surprise, although Marquez kept it close until he crashed (twice.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the spirit of complete accuracy, technically there were three Americans in the Superprestigio: Baker, who was sort of an official ambassador for the GNC; Kenny Noyes, who is an American but lives and races in Spain full time; and Merle Scherb who was a part-time GNC competitor and occasional instructor in Colin Edwards’ Texas Tornado motorcycle camp.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></b></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Fast forward to this year, and there were three official GNC racers representing the U.S. Baker, again; reigning GNC #1 plate-holder Jared Mees; and Shayna Texter, who rode for Latus Triumph last year.</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Again, the structure of competition kept the GNC regulars away from the road racers until the last race. (Though Noyes, as the current CEV Superbike class champion, raced with the Dorna group.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Trouble came early when Baker crashed hard and dislocated his shoulder in practice. Shayna Texter is not a short track ace; she’s better on the bigger, faster tracks; she didn’t make the final.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That set up the final, U.S. vs. Spain (and the rest of the world) race as a straight, winner take all fight between Mees and Marquez, who’d been untouchable in their respective divisions all day.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The problem, for U.S. flat track, is that Marquez won.</span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BQ9bDZiaAZg/VI-PrSLLDVI/AAAAAAAACt8/_hzo4VMi2l0/s1600/MCNMarquez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BQ9bDZiaAZg/VI-PrSLLDVI/AAAAAAAACt8/_hzo4VMi2l0/s1600/MCNMarquez.jpg" height="306" width="320" /></a></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, maybe it’s a problem. I mean, no really informed observer believes that on balance, Marquez is already better at flat track than the best Americans. But still, that’s how it’s being reported in much of the world.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Motorcycle News in the UK, for example, simply wrote <i>“</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Marc Marquez has taken on the best of the American flat track world and won, beating three times AMA Grand National champion Jared Mees to win the overall class at the reintroduced Spanish dirt track event.”</i></span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Over at MO, editorial director Sean Alexander saw it as setting up a great rivalry for next year, but at least one informed flat track observer on by FB feed was, like, “What the hell? We didn’t win?!?”</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The irony in all this is that last year, I had a bizarre Twitter exchange with the Andy Leisner, the boss at Cycle World, who told me that they didn’t want Baker to attend, because they were afraid he’d spank Marquez too bad, and wreck the event. No worries about that any more.</span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VNB3Cv-91Ks/VI-Qtz9LrhI/AAAAAAAACuM/GUFvrYyrkKQ/s1600/LeisnerResponseEdited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VNB3Cv-91Ks/VI-Qtz9LrhI/AAAAAAAACuM/GUFvrYyrkKQ/s1600/LeisnerResponseEdited.jpg" height="229" width="320" /></a></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">People will equivocate. They were running 17” wheels and GP rain tires; Marquez is used to that setup but Mees was not. Anything can happen in short track. Mees is not the best singles rider in the GNC; and, obviously, Marquez is a very special case. But while a lot of people in the U.S. flat track community are putting a positive spin on the event, I have to think that quite a few of them are also privately shocked.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Last year—and this year until the final race—American flat track craved the global prestige it got from the Superprestigio. But suddenly it seems as if some Spanish johnny-come-lately has just shown up our #1 plate holder.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;"><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="color: #232323; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Next year, AMA Pro Racing should send reinforcements.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">NOTE: For the record, before you attack me, personally, for voicing this opinion. Let me make this clear: Jared Mees is a better—much better—flat tracker than Marc Marquez is.&nbsp;</span></div>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366230834353702090.post-40013097153354667592014-12-02T15:04:00.001-08:002014-12-02T16:17:37.202-08:00If ASRA/CCS sanction a 200 mile race at Daytona, is it the "Daytona 200"?I don't want to dump on ASRA/CCS, which is a great organization, but I'm shaking my head over the announcement that this year's Daytona 200 will be sanctioned by ASRA and run according to its Sportbike class rules.<br /><br />Obviously, Daytona (the speedway, not the town) gets to decide who uses the "Daytona 200" name, because they (presumably) own the trademark. So technically, the race will be "the Daytona 200". But what the fuck?..<br /><br />Imagine a world where the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a falling out with all the unions that control feature film production. So all the big film studios say, "We're having nothing to do with the Academy." At that point, if the Academy decides it will still produce an Academy Awards show, and they're going to give out Oscars, but they're only going to invite ultra-indy films produced by amateurs using non-union talent--at that point, is it still really the Academy Awards? Would the winners really be able to say, "I won an Oscar"?<br /><br />Anyone who's followed the long decline in the 200, since the days when it attracted a truly world class field would say, even the real Daytona 200 hasn't been a real Daytona 200 since the '80s. But who does <strike>DMG</strike>&nbsp;DIS&nbsp;think it's fooling by giving the race to an amateur series?<br /><br />Admittedly, the claimed $175,000 purse sounds a lot bigger than the money in ASRA/CCS races. And if enough quality riders and machines show up, <strike>DMG</strike>&nbsp;DIS/ASRA/CCS can make me look like a churlish old bastard for writing this. But we've heard DMG make big purse claims before, which proved to be so much bluster and hot air. It remains to be seen how DIS delivers on this promise.<br /><br />As far as I'm concerned, if they're going to legitimize this incarnation of the 200 by virtue of the size of the purse, $175,000 is about $325k short. Offer $150k/$100k/$75k for the podium, and pay enough through 15th to cover all of an international team's travel costs, and you might see (for example) a bunch of the teams who race in the TT come over. Guy Martin and Michael Dunlop won't give a shit that the track's not up to FIM safety standards.<br /><br />For the record, every time I write something like this, a whole bunch of whingebags leap to the defense of the aggrieved club series. So in advance, fuck off. I think ASRA/CCS is great. I'd love to race in some of your races. But you can't just run your Sportbike field for a 200 mile race at Daytona, and call it the Daytona 200, and have that mean anything in a race with the 200's heritage. Hailwood and Agostini raced in the 200; Dick Mann and Cal Rayborn; Foggy, and Russell, and Duhamel even, recently.<br /><br />This isn't that.<br /><br /><b>NOTE: After I put this up, Chris Carr commented via FB that DMG has nothing to do with the 200. I'm assuming he's right, since he's better informed on it than I am. So I'm saying DIS -- the speedway -- not DMG. I'm pretty sure they're owned and controlled by the same people, so I'm letting the rest of it stand.</b>Mark Gardinernoreply@blogger.com1